


this is the way he loves her

by Smudge



Series: it was always you, it'll always be you [2]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Canon Typical Violence, F/M, Here we go, also featuring jughead's need for dirty talk, archie is a good bro, as it was meant to be, back to riverdale, betty and her praise kink, betty and jughead against the world, don't worry jughead's into it, in which we have a sequel, it's how he do, jughead is extra but what else is new?, lawyer betty because ras stole my thunder, married bughead, smut will happen, they love each other and that's all that matters, things go down, to i can't fall in love without you, veronica is a girl's best friend
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-11
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2019-07-10 22:54:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 28,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15959297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smudge/pseuds/Smudge
Summary: They had been through everything together, escaped their small town start, and made names for themselves as they built the life they had dreamed of.When something calls them back home, the things they thought they left behind as distant memories start to haunt them as they fight for their careers, family, and friends. All while trying to keep the promise they made to one another the day they said, “I do.”Or, Betty and Jughead fight the world the way they were always meant to. Together.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> HELLO! 
> 
> Here we are, hey, hi, how are you? How you doing? Good, good. 
> 
> So, here's the deal, this is the sequel I got my arms twisted about for icfilwy for those in the know, if not, try and say that bad boy 3 times fast. Mmhmm. 
> 
> Welcome to married, adult bughead dealing with family nonsense, their respective bff's, Jughead's inability to stay out of trouble and Betty's never ending desire to get in trouble with him because, sigh, these kids just love each other too damn much not to try and take on the world when they feel the need to right a wrong. 
> 
> So, buckle up my bros, we're gonna do this! 
> 
> And, of course, you can [tumble](https://thetaoofbetty.tumblr.com/) with me if you want.
> 
> Let me know what you think and as always BESOS!

**_August 2029_ **

_He catches Betty by the waist, spinning her around as she laughs, tossing her head back and yelling at him to let her go through her giggles._

_“Never,” he whispers to her, setting her back on her feet but not letting her go. The tips of his fingers finding the spots on her ribs he knows are the most ticklish._

_“Jug, no!” Betty yells at him, trying to shove him off of her as she starts squirming and laughing. “You suck.”_

_“I could, if you wanted me to,” he tells her, wrapping his arms around her middle, bringing her back to his chest and resting his chin on her shoulder. “You know how much I enjoy the way you taste.”_

_Betty lets her head fall against his collarbone as she groans. “It’s been years, Jug, how are you still this cheesy?”_

_“Practice,” he informs her. Smacking a loud kiss to her cheek he lets her go as his phone goes off. Pulling it out of his pocket, he smiles at the name before he answers._

_“Hey, Arch, what’s up?”_

_Betty is looking at him as his face falls and he meets her eyes, hers concerned and his worried as he says, “What? No, no-”_

_He goes silent. Betty’s walking closer to him, reaching out to lay a hand on his arm._

_“Yeah, Archie, I’ll, uh, I’ll let you know,” he chokes out before hanging up. He brings a hand to run through his hair as Betty waits for him to tell her what’s wrong._

_“It’s my dad. He’s been arrested for murder.”_

_“What?!” Betty cries out, her hand coming up to cover her mouth in shock._

_“Betty,” he says, swallowing loudly, trying to keep himself in check. “He confessed.”_

 

* * *

 

**October 2029**

“Did you ever think we’d be coming back here?” she asks from the passenger seat of the rental car they’d picked up that morning.

“You know,” Jughead tells her, “not really, no.”

“Me either,” she replies, taking his free hand in hers, intertwining their fingers. “We’ll figure it out, Jug. I promise.”

He just gives her a slight nod and keeps staring ahead at the road.

Less than two hours later, when they pass the sign welcoming them to Riverdale, he makes the turn to go to Sunnyside instead of Archie’s.

“We’re not going to Archie’s first?” Betty asks, looking confused.

Jughead shakes his head, his hands steady on the wheel. “No.”

A few minutes later, when he’s pulling them into Sunnyside Trailer Park, he exhales loudly and looks over at Betty. She meets his eyes with a sad smile. “You ready, Juggie?”

“Not even a little, baby,” he replies, turning the engine off and taking a deep breath before getting out of the car to face the past he was certain he’d left behind.

He hadn’t been back to the trailer since he and Betty had come home for a visit sometime in their junior year of college. They’d been back to Riverdale since but he’d never made the effort to go back to the trailer he escaped when he was fifteen years old. It had always been the Andrews house they stayed at, sometimes the Pembrooke when Veronica was back in town and feeling what he’s termed as “Betty Deprived.”

Popping the trunk open, he grabs both their bags before standing up straight and meeting Betty’s small smile with a look of determination as they make their way up the steps and onto the small porch, Betty opening the door with the spare key she’d always had.

It looked the same. It even _smelled_ the same.

Setting the bags down next to the wall that leads into the kitchen he bites back the emotions as Betty pulls him into her arms. Losing control of his emotions for the time first time since getting the news of his dad’s arrest he holds onto his wife in the past he thought he had escaped, wondering what he was even doing there and why he still cared so much.

Jughead Jones is twenty-eight years old when he falls to his knees in front of the love of his life and finally, _finally_ grieves for the family he’s lost.

Betty slides to the ground with him, running her hand through his hair as he lays his head in her lap, murmuring words of comfort to him, telling him how much she loves him, even making a joke or two about the sofa that seems to refuse to die still sitting in the same place after all this time. When she eventually gets him up and off the floor, she shuffles him to the bedroom to take a nap as she puts away the food they’d brought with them.

He wants to protest, he knows she’s going to clean among other things and he wants to help her with but he’s so exhausted he falls on the old mattress with almost no argument, asleep as his head hits the pillow.

When he’s woken up by incessant ringing of his phone, he realizes it must the next morning as he squints at the bright light of the room, looking over to see a sleeping Betty next to him. Reaching for the phone he groans as he sees the name on the screen and rolls his eyes at the speed in which Veronica Lodge had found out what he’d done.

 _“Why is my Bettykins not staying at the Pembrooke, Jughead Jones?”_ he hears Veronica voice ask him as soon as he answers the phone, not even waiting for a greeting.

“Veronica,” he sighs out, not ready for her so early in the day, “I think it’s important that we stay on the Southside right now.”

_“You’re keeping my girl hostage in your dad’s trailer instead of the luxury we both know she deserves?”_

“Ronnie,” he says calmly, the nickname he only uses to catch her full attention, stopping her rant, “she’s my wife and she agreed with me on this. I’m sure she’ll escape the Pembrooke as often as you want as soon as you’re in town.”

_“Can I -ugh- let me at least send a new mattress for her, the one there must be older than all of us combined.”_

He smiles to himself, unable to keep the amusement out of his tone. “Not worried about me, are you, Veronica?”

_“Jughead, I’ve seen you sleep against a wall while holding a burger, you’re fine. Besides, you know how much Betty likes the bed at the Pembrooke.”_

Laughing softly at the memory of a mussed up Betty in nothing but his t-shirt, sleepy and smiling as she snuggled in the bed, asking for a divorce so she could marry the mattress she was on makes him give in as he looks over at her, sleeping in the same shirt as the memory, her pretty face relaxed and peaceful. “Fine-”

A happy squeal on the other end of the line has him sighing as it interrupts him.

“But, Veronica, I’m serious, just the mattress, I don’t want to discover thousand count sheets and down pillows, okay?”

_“Why must you always take away my fun?”_

Jughead lays back down, rolling until he’s facing Betty, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear so it’s off her face. “It’s what I live for.”

_“Oh ha-ha-ha, Jones, you’re so hilarious.”_

“Is that sarcasm that I detect?”

_“Ugh, are you going to let me talk to Betty or not? I didn’t call to chat with you, you know.”_

He laughs again. “Yes, I know. You called to lecture me about how I’m not keeping my wife in the life to which _you’ve_ accustomed her to.”

 _“Betty-Bee!”_ is shouted loudly through the phone, making him pull it away from his ear. _“You know what? Nevermind.”_

The line goes silent as Betty’s phone starts to go off and he reaches for it, seeing the facetime call from Veronica. Sighing loudly, he answers it.

 _“Dammit, Jughead!”_ she yells at the screen.

“Betty is asleep, Lodge,” he tells her with a pointed look.

She rolls her eyes at him. He doesn’t want to know how early she gets up every day to get ready but he can see she’s already dressed and sitting at what he knows is her dining room table.

_“Fine. I’ll call back.”_

“Betty _was_ asleep,” a sleepy mumble comes from next to him as she reaches for her phone, her eyes barely open as she smiles at him then Veronica. “Hi, V.”

_“Betty-love! Look, I know you’re married to him and everything but are you sure you need to-”_

“Veronica, it’s fine, I promise,” Betty tells her, stretching against him as he wraps an arm around her, placing a kiss on the top of her head.

He can see Veronica sit back with a sigh.

“Are you sure this is about me staying with you or is it more about avoiding Archie?” Betty asks delicately.

A scowling Veronica raises an eyebrow at her through the screen. _“I’ll have you know I have been avoiding Archie just fine for years. Betty, are you sure you want to stay on the Southside? If people believe FP is a murderer -sorry Jughead- they might retaliate and you’d be an easy target over there.”_

“It’ll be fine, V, I promise. Besides, Jughead can keep me safe I’m sure,” she tells her seriously. “And I need to go see FP this morning, too. When are you coming into town?”

_“Soon, I just need to finish a few things and then I’ll be on my way.”_

Betty smiles at her, something that’s bright and understanding at the same time. “I’ll see you when you get here, okay?”

 _“Sure, sure. Love you, B!”_ Jughead sees her pause. _“Bye, Jughead.”_

She cuts the call and he laughs as Betty puts her phone back down. “She misses me so much, as you can tell.”

Pulling Betty closer to him, she’s almost laying across his chest when she asks him if he wants to go with her to see his dad.

Unsure, Jughead just exhales and lets his eyes close. “I do. But I don’t. I think I need to but I don’t know what I’m going to say to him, Betts. What do you say to someone who confesses to a murder?”

“You don’t think he really did it, do you?”

“We’ve been over this, Betty. It doesn’t matter what I think-”

“Talk to me like that again, Jughead, I dare you,” she says, her voice firm. “It absolutely matters what you think and it’s going to matter when you walk in there and see your father for the first time in way too long.”

“I don’t know if I can, baby, I really don’t.”

She scoots up so she can reach his face easier as she extends a hand to run a thumb along his jawline. “You don’t have to. Not today, at least.”

“Maybe I’ll go see Archie,” he tells her, hugging her close to him as he presses his lips to hers as she tilts her head back to look up at him.

“If that’s what you want.”

Suddenly, he moves with her, pinning her down to the mattress. “I think you know what I want.”

Betty’s giggling, trying to kick at him but her legs are tangled in the sheets. “Waffles?”

“Hmmm.” He pretends to consider it. “I don’t think so.”

She’s pushing at his hands as they move under her shirt, up against her sides, tickling her along the way. “Pancakes?”

“Pancakes?” he asks, going higher until his fingers find the undersides of her breasts. “Guess again.”

He knows how ticklish she is and he can’t help but distract himself with her as he makes her laugh until she’s pink, begging him to quit.

Panting, she offers another suggestion. “Oatmeal?”

He stops, looking at her offended. “Why would you even think that? I am horrified-”

She uses his distraction as leverage and finally kicks the sheet off her legs as she moves to straddle him. “Why do you fall for that every single time?”

“It’s just that offensive, Betty,” he informs her, running his hands up her thighs, noticing for the first time that she’s not wearing panties. “Is this for me?”

She rolls her hips against him as she looks down, meeting his eyes. “Isn’t it always?”

“Come here,” he says, giving her thigh a soft smack, making her jump a little as she bites her lip and starts to shuffle on her knees up his body, hands on the wall to steady her as she makes her way over his shoulders. “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day after all.”

She’s already groaning about how cheesy he is before the first flick of his tongue hits her. Then she’s groaning for a totally different reason and he smiles into her as his fingers bite into the skin of her thigh, the pressure of them making her squirm just the way he likes.

 

* * *

 

Opening the door to the Andrews house, he calls out into the entryway to announce his presence.

“Hey, Jug! Back here,” Archie shouts from the kitchen.

Seeing Archie with his head stuck in the fridge, it reminds him of high school all over again. Amused, he leans against the counter, waiting for him to be done when he asks, “What’s up, Arch?”

He gets a muffled response of, “Not much.”

When Archie stands up and closes the fridge, he’s offering him soda with one hand while running a hand through his hair with the other. “Betty seeing your dad today?”

“Yeah, all dressed up in her lawyer clothes and everything,” he responds with a shrug. “Oh, and Veronica is coming back to town.”

Archie snorts a laugh. “Of course she is, Betty’s here.”

Jughead nods in agreement with a smile. He takes in Archie’s appearance and thinks he looks almost the same as he did the last time they were standing in the kitchen, talking about Betty and Veronica.

_“I’m sorry about Veronica, man,” he tells him, clapping a hand on Archie’s shoulder as he sits morosely at the island, his forehead in the palm of his hands._

_“Thanks, Jug.”_

_“You guys can’t work it out?”_

_Archie just lifts a shoulder at him in response. “I thought after getting back together last year we’d be fine”_

_“No offense, Arch, but just expecting her to switch schools to be with you without talking to her about it was probably a bad move.”_

_Archie nods at him. “Yeah, I know. I wasn’t trying to run her life, Jug, you know that. I just wanted to be near her.”_

_“And this breakup is because?”_

_“I’m not totally sure. I don’t think she’s ready to do long distance right now.”_

_“Maybe,” he says with a grin, trying to lighten the mood, “you should tell her that Betty is switching to your school, man. She’ll be enrolled by the end of the day.”_

_Archie smiles at him for the first time since he walked in. “Don’t tempt me.”_

_“Too bad you’re no Betty Cooper.”_

_For the first time since the breakup Archie laughs and that was enough for Jughead._

“Did you get the Ronnie call yet?” Archie asks, leaning back against the counter, crossing one leg over the other as he looks around the kitchen.

“First thing this morning,” he replies, taking a drink of the soda Archie had given him. “I’m not totally certain but I think she insulted me at least three times and then she decided to send Betty a new bed.”

“Not the both of you?”

His mouth twitches with a slight smile. “In her own Veronica Lodge way, I’m sure it’s for the both of us but mostly?”

“Betty,” they say at the same time, both of them laughing.

“Hey, Jug,” Archie says suddenly, “you know your dad didn’t do it right? He’s a lot of things but a murderer isn’t one of them.”

Jughead swallows back a sharp retort. He knows Archie wants to see the best in everyone. “He confessed, Arch. That doesn’t really speak to his innocence-”

“Jughead.”

He’d completely missed the sounds of footsteps while he was talking to Archie and he spins around with a big smile on his face as he sees Fred Andrews in the doorway of the kitchen, a somber look on his face.

“Fred,” he says, giving the man a hug, noting how he looks older but still like the same Fred he’s always known. “How are you?”

“Been better,” Fred tells him, a hand squeezing his shoulder. “I need to talk to you.”

“Sure.” Pursing his lips as he furrows his brow he follows Fred into the living room. Sitting down on the sofa, across from where Fred is sitting in a chair with his elbows on his knees he’s getting anxious as he asks, “What’s going on?”

“I know you’ve been struggling with what happened to your dad, Jug, but I’ve been looking into it since he got arrested.”

“Looking into it? You? Why?”

“Something doesn’t feel right, Jug,” Fred tells him, his face somber. “Your dad’s been sober for years now, you know that. When I rehired him, he’d been sober for a while, still running the Serpents but otherwise keeping out of trouble.”  
Jughead nods in agreement. His dad had gotten most of his act together by the time he’d left for college with Betty.

“Lately, he’d been getting deeper into Serpent business, more hands on, more stressed out, you know?” Fred runs a hand through his hair in the exact way he’s seen Archie do thousands of time and it makes him smile for just a second. “I don’t know what happened but the day before he was arrested, he’d been acting off, acting like the world was sitting on his shoulders.”

Jughead frowns, not getting Fred’s point.

“I’ve known your dad for a lot longer than almost anyone else, Jug, and he’s not a murderer. Either he knows who did it and he’s taking the fall for someone -by choice or not, I don’t know- or he’s being set up and he knows who did it,” Fred insists.

“What do you know?”

“I know he wasn’t in town the night that girl was killed, Jughead.”

Inhaling sharply, he sits back and takes in Fred’s face. He’s almost imploring Jughead to believe him, daring him to start looking into himself. “Where was he?”

“At one of your book signings.”

 

* * *

 

**_August 2029_ **

_Life could be worse, he thinks as he starts another reading to another full crowd before starting the question and answer portion of the signing._

_“Is it true you’ve been with your wife since you were fifteen?” one person wants to know._ _  
_ _Smiling, he looks to the back of the crowd where he knows she’s standing, trying not to draw attention to herself. “That’s true.”_

_“And no regrets?”_

_Raising an eyebrow at the audacity of the question he just shrugs as he leans back into the chair, crossing his arms. “Yeah, just one.”_

_“What’s that?”_

_“That I wasn’t with her since the day I met her,” he answers, meeting her eye again as she shakes her head at him in amusement. Hearing a loud laugh to the side of him he looks over. “You want to add something, Archie?”_

_“Nope, I’m good.”_

_Someone else yells out, “When did you meet her?”_

_Jughead smiles widely. “The first day of kindergarten-”_

_“Seriously?” a voice calls out from the crowd._

_“-and I still can’t believe I missed out on ten years of kissing her.”_

_He starts his reading and by the time he’s done his throat is dry and he doesn’t think he can stand another round of questions. Thanking everyone for their time, he stands and as he starts to head to where he knows Betty is at the back of the store, a familiar flannel pattern catches his eye but he shakes it off, scoffing to himself how ridiculous that would be._

 

* * *

 

“Hey, Betty,” a tired FP says to her as she enters the room. He’s handcuffed to the table and looks years older than she knows he is in the jumpsuit they’ve got him wearing. “Look at you, all grown up.”

Betty smiles at him, sitting down across from him, putting her bag down on the table. “How are you doing, FP?”

“As good as a murderer can,” he responds glibly.

She breathes in to keep her composure. She’s doing this for Jughead, he needs this even if he’s pretending he doesn’t, the sounds of his sobs on the floor of the trailer coming back to creep in her consciousness.

She smiles benignly. “Cut the bullshit, FP.”

His eyes widen and he leans back in his chair.

“We both know you’re no murderer. In fact, I’m almost willing to bet you’re not even capable of _arson,_ are you? No, I think you are capable of a lot of things but nothing you’ve been charged with. Now, do you want to tell me the truth or do I have to leave and tell your son that his father is going to choose something else over him? Again?” Her nails are tapping on the tabletop, her spine stiff with her voice firm as she stares at him unblinkingly. She’d put on a black pencil skirt with a white button up top that morning because despite as much as she’s an adult, she grew up with these people and the tendency to treat her like the sixteen year old she used to be is still prevalent. Being harsh but truthful might be the only thing she’s going to be able to do to shock some sort truths out of him.

“Betty-”

“No, FP, listen to me,” she hisses at him, leaning across the table. “You will _not_ destroy your son this way. I know you’re lying and he, god, he is so desperate to convince himself you did it because if he thinks you didn’t and you get convicted, he will never recover. Never, FP, and I will not allow that to happen.”

Sitting back up straight, she rests her hands in front of her, clasped together as she sends a smile. “Now, would you like to tell me where you were on the night of the murder?”

FP stares silently at her.

“Okay. So now I know you’re hiding something and I want you to know, Mr. Jones, I’m going to find it. My best guess? The Serpents. I think I’ll start there-”

“Do not go messing with the Serpents, Betty. Stay away from them, do you hear me?” FP demands, looking at her with the most intensity she thinks she’s ever seen on his face.

“Are you going to start talking?”

He sighs, moving his hands around restlessly. “Betty, I asked you to help me get the best deal I can, not go digging-”

She grabs her bag at that, standing up as she looks at him. “Then you must not know me at all, FP. And no, I don’t think that’s why you called me. I know you didn’t do this and I know there’s a reason you’re doing this to yourself, to your _son._ Even JB and Gladys no matter how far away they are right now.” Turning to leave she looks over her shoulder at him. “You’re family, FP, despite all the pretending you do to the contrary and that means something to us whether or not it means anything to you.”

Letting the door slam behind her, she falls against it and takes a deep breath, steadying her nerves. How is she supposed to go home to her husband and tell him his father wants to take the fall for something he didn’t do.

She straightens up, fixing her hair and skirt, making sure her shirt is tucked in firmly before putting on a neutral expression as she walks back through the police station. Sheriff Keller seems like he’s still all too happy to blame the Jones men for anything that goes wrong in Riverdale. Making her way back to the trailer, she arrives just as Jughead is letting some delivery people haul the old mattress out of the door, catching her eye and shrugging in resignation.

 _Veronica,_ she thinks with a smile. She can’t wait until her best friend is back in Riverdale. And though she’s promised not to, if perhaps, a little push towards Archie manages to happen, well, she’s just going to call that fate.

He’s fidgeting by the time the delivery people are gone and it takes her a second to notice the change in him but when she does she feels like someone slapped her.

“Juggie? You’re wearing your beanie?”

He looks at her, with his worried eyes and slumped posture and it’s like they went back twelve years in time and she wants to cry for him.

Gesturing to his head but letting his hand fall when he can’t get the words out he just lets his head fall forward as he stares at the ground. She hadn’t seen him wear that beanie in years, it seemed like a relic almost at this point, a callback to the insecurities of his youth. Betty takes the steps needed to close the distance between them and leads him back up and into the trailer. He sits on the sofa with a huff, his head back against the cushions as he watches her set her bag down and slip out of her heels.

“How was Archie?” she asks, choosing to ignore the beanie shaped elephant in the room for now.

“He’s fine,” he tells her. “So’s Fred, by the way. He had some interesting things to tell me.”

“Is that right?”

“Mmhmm,” he hums out, his eyes closing as he kicks his feet up on the coffee table, looking exhausted. “He thinks my dad didn’t do it and he’s either being blackmailed or he’s covering for someone.”

Betty nods even though he can’t see her. “I think that’s a fair assessment.” She sits down next to him, propping her feet up next to his as he curls an arm around her, her head resting on his shoulder. “He didn’t do it, Juggie.”

Feeling him sigh, he kisses her temple. “I know.”

“What are we going to do?”

Jughead tightens his arm around her before letting it relax once more. “I have an idea but you’re not going to like it.”

Almost groaning at that, she counts to five in her head before asking him what his idea was.

“From what Fred tells me, Dad was acting even shadier than normal where the Serpents have been concerned-”

“He told me to stay away from them, Jug,” she interrupts.

Jughead twists his head to look at her. “So we know for sure it has to do with the Serpents, then.”

“Looks that way, yeah,” Betty agrees.

Pulling her further into his chest, he rests his head on top of hers as he tells her, “I think I need to join them, Betty, if we want to figure out what’s going on.”

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go again! No, no, don't let me stop you from reading, it's cool, just ignore me. It's fine. Whatever.

**October 2029**

“You cannot be serious,” Betty exclaims. “You want to join the Serpents?”

“No, I don’t  _want_ to, Betts, I think I  _need_ to,” Jughead responds, catching her wrist before she can pop up off the sofa and go into full Cooper-Jones mode with her hands on her hips and the glare that’s made weaker men stop in their tracks.

Okay, it was him and it was only once, but his girl can get  _scary._

“Do you know how they initiate gang members, Jug? It’s not with hugs, you know. They’re going to probably beat the shit out of you and that’s if they even let you in.”

He tugs on her until she melts back into him. “Baby, if I do this, it’ll help you and help my dad. It’ll be like college almost, remember?”

She scoffs at him. “You were playing private detective for cash on the side, Jughead. There’s a difference between taking pictures of cheating spouses and going undercover into a gang.”

He fakes offense at her words. “Are you saying that you didn’t enjoy all of my private dick jokes?” Kissing her cheek he runs a hand through her hair. “It all seems to go back to the Serpents, doesn’t it? You’re Dad’s lawyer, Betty, you need to keep your nose clean and get all the information you can. Who else can do it? Archie? He’d probably try and hug someone before getting his ass kicked.”

Betty laughs at him even as she tries to maintain her serious demeanor.

“Maybe Veronica? True, she’d probably be running the whole gang within a week but I think these people might get pissed off when she shows up with her new designer leather jackets because “snakes are so passé.”  

Laughing harder, Betty slaps his stomach. “Stop it.”

“You know I’m right Betty, I’m FP’s kid, that should get my foot in the door at least,” he tells her. “No one but you, Archie, and Veronica know I ever investigated anything semi-professionally. Maybe I can play the revenge angle or something.”

Betty hums her resigned agreement before sitting up and looking at him. “Or, and how about this, you just get a trench coat and fedora if you want to play detective. I’ll let you call me doll and talk about my “gams” without laughing, I promise.”

He grins at her as she stares at him with big green eyes full of hope and compromise. “Betty-”

“Wait, just hear me out, we can even go to one of those murder mystery dinner things, right? I’ll knock out the actor who’s playing the detective and you can entertain, help commit a felony, and solve a mystery, all in one evening! And it includes dinner, so you know, that should sweeten the deal,” she interrupts.

He gazes at her with soft eyes, he knows she’s doing this because she’s worried about the consequences of what could be the fallout of this whole scenario.

“Baby-”

“Juggie, if you do this, if you join the Serpents, what happens when we leave? Are they going to let you go?” she asks him seriously.

He falters in his urge to immediately tell her everything will be fine. The fact is that he doesn’t know if everything will be fine. Betty had dropped her entire life to come defend his dad against a murder charge and he doesn’t want that to be for nothing. Not knowing if everything will be fine but certain he’d make it fine for her in the end, no matter what, he traces his fingers across the curve of her neck before leaning forward to kiss her.

“It’ll be fine,” he promises even though he has no business doing so.

She looks wary at his words. Standing, he pulls her up with him and smiles at her, trying to calm her fears even as his own are eating away at him.

“Pop’s?” he suggests.

Betty’s smile is small when she nods at him and he pulls her into his side as they leave the trailer and head back to the Northside of town.

“Should we call Archie?”

Jughead considers it. “Sure, if you want. When is Veronica getting here?”

Betty shrugs against him as he opens the car door for her. “Probably tomorrow or the day after, she’s not sure yet.”

He’s holding her hand across the center console as she calls Archie while they drive to Pop’s, the nostalgia of it all crashing down on him as they pass the Twilight, restored and still one of his favorite things in Riverdale. The Bijou where he learned what having a job was really like much to Betty’s eternal amusement. Passing by Sweetwater River as he thinks about swimming there every summer with Betty and Archie, then with Veronica when she showed up, something he’ll be forever grateful for since she got Betty into a bikini for the first time, stopping his brain and causing him to walk into the same tree he did when he was fourteen.

It hadn’t mattered, then, that he’d actually known what was under the bikini, the image of her golden and beautiful, walking towards him down the path as he jogged to meet her once more taking over as he realized that she was his.

It wasn’t a fantasy any longer.

He’d gotten the girl and he’d never had any intention of letting her go. It was a promise to himself and knowing he’s the one she married, he can’t help but feel like he pulled off the greatest con in history; getting Betty Cooper to settle for Jughead Jones.  

Looking at her at a stop sign, he smiles to himself as he picks up their intertwined fingers, pressing a kiss to her knuckles as she talks to Archie, absentmindedly chatting away without noticing his trip down memory lane.

Smiling distractedly at him, she squeezes his hand in acknowledgment and tells Archie they’ll be at Pop’s in less than five minutes before hanging up and settling into the seat with a sigh. Rolling her head to look at him again, she looks almost sleepy. “I’m ready for this day to end.”

“Yeah, me too,” he responds, taking the turn that will take them to Pop’s. It’s a familiar drive and he can’t wait to have another Pop’s burger. It’s been too long.

Pulling into the parking lot, he parks right up front and shuts the engine off with a look at Betty. She’d fallen asleep in the few minutes since hanging up with Archie and he takes a moment to take in her features. She’s tired, he can tell. There’s a slight puffiness to her eyes, her hair looks like she’d been fidgeting with it all day, and she’s got the smallest smudge along the line of her lipstick.

 _God,_ he thinks,  _how did I get so lucky?_

Leaning over to her seat, he brushes his nose along hers, pressing a kiss to her lips to wake her up. When her eyes open she blinks at him, sleepy but happy.

“Hi,” she says to him, stretching her legs as she goes to unbuckle her seat belt.

“Hi.” Popping the buckle for her before she gets to it, he reaches past her and opens the door, pushing it out a little for her as he kisses her again before getting out of the car and heading into the diner, his hand on her lower back as they head toward the booth they’d always sat in, no matter how long between visits.

Nothing had changed since they were kids, it seemed. The bright red of the vinyl, the bright lights and menu, the neon of the sign lighting up the surrounding area, and Pop, still in his white uniform, serving burgers and shakes to the residents of Riverdale. He smiles at the man behind the counter as he waves at him.

“If it isn’t the Cooper-Jones! How are you kids?”

“We’re fine, Pop. How are you?” he asks as they reach their booth, Betty slipping in before him and him following, wrapping an arm around her as she leans into him, still not completely awake.

“I’m good, Jughead, real good.”

“That’s great, Pop. Can you send Archie our way when he gets here?”

Pop smiles at him with a nod. “Of course.”

“I was thinking,” Betty suddenly says, “if Fred’s been looking into your dad’s arrest I want to know why.”

“You don’t think it’s because he and my dad have been friends since they were kids?”

“I know that’s part of it,” she explains, “but Fred has always been the one to toe the line unless he knows something else is going on.”

Considering it for a second, Jughead nods in agreement. Hearing the bell, he looks up and sees Archie walking through the door. “Betty, maybe we don’t tell Archie about Fred right now, okay?”

Furrowing her brow she seems taken aback by that but agrees with him nonetheless.

Pop points Archie to their booth and he’s nothing but easy smiles and relaxed posture as he slides in across from them.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” he asks, setting his elbows on the table as he sets the menu that was in front of him aside.

“Nothing much,” Betty tells him. “How’s the business?”

Archie coming home to help with his dad with Andrews construction surprised almost no one. Truthfully, Jughead isn’t sure whether he would have if he and Veronica would have worked out but he seems happy to be back home in Riverdale.

Smiling at Betty he starts picking at a napkin. “It’s good. It’s been really good actually."

“That’s great, Arch,” Betty replies, sincere happiness written all over her face.

He’s about to say something else when the bell to the door rings once more and Jughead can almost swear it’s twelve years in the past as Veronica Lodge breezes through the diner door, Archie turning to stare at her like he’d never seen anything like her before. He sees Betty’s small smile at their best friends, he knows she wants them to work it out and while Jughead thinks it can happen he knows it’s always easier said than done.

Or, in theory he knows that. He and Betty had been together for over a decade now and at times, he thinks it’s been the only easy thing in their lives at certain points.

He knows the moment Veronica spots them. It’d be hard to miss with the way she yells across the diner.

“BETTY!”

Betty laughs as Veronica starts a fast paced walk toward their booth, her face beaming at the sight of them.

Her steps barely falters as she sees Archie for the first time, her smile becoming a little less genuine but staying on her face. “Archiekins! Long time, no see. Jughead.”

“Hey, Ronnie.” He moves over so she can sit next to him in the booth and Jughead sees her take a breath before smiling bigger once more and gliding into the booth like she does it ten times a day.

“Now, Betty-Bear, did you get the new mattress yet?” Veronica asks Betty, ignoring both males after her initial acknowledgement.

“Of course, V. Jughead was there when it was delivered, I can’t thank you enough, you know you didn’t have to do that.”

Jughead smirks at Archie before looking to Veronica. “Yeah, Veronica, thanks for the new bed.”

Veronica rolls her eyes at him. “You’re welcome, Jughead. Even though you fought me on it and I had to insist.”

Archie’s smirking back at him, almost shaking his head in amusement. “Never change, Ronnie.”

She snaps her head to Archie. “It’s the same mattress I bought you, Archiekins, am I not allowed to spoil the people I lo-” Her eyes get big as she cuts herself off. “-uh, the people I care about?”

Jughead lets her have that one, no good will come from confronting her on her emotions when she’s not ready to deal with them. He, of all people, knows that much. Veronica had been overcompensating for her father’s misdeeds since high school and no amount of telling her different had ever managed to have an impact. He gets it, the way she feels responsible for everything but he’s told her more than once it’s not on her.

One day she might believe it. And maybe, if she can believe it about her father, he’ll be able to believe it about his.

Betty squeezes his knee under the table, almost making him jump. Twisting his head just a bit to catch her eye she widens hers a fraction. He can tell by her body language she wants to know if they should tell them about the Serpents or not.

A subtle shake of his head tells her no and they seamlessly fall back into the conversation between themselves, Archie, and Veronica.

“So, B, I was thinking since we’re here we can-”

“Ronnie, I think Betty is here in a professional capacity,” Archie interrupts, giving Jughead a significant look.

Veronica rolls her eyes at him and keeps going. “We can-”

“Ronnie,” Archie sighs out, this time a little firmer.

Narrowing her eyes at him, Veronica looks like she’s ready to yell at him when Betty cuts in.

“I’m sure we’ll be able to find time to do things, V.”

Ever the peacemaker, Betty smiles at Veronica and covers Archie’s hand with her own, squeezing it before letting it go and pulling back.

Jughead watches the whole interaction, amused. He’s used to Veronica’s need to control the situation and Betty’s need to keep everyone happy. A little taken aback by Archie’s defense of himself and Betty’s time he appreciates it all the same and gives Archie a nod from across the booth in thanks.

Ordering burgers and milkshakes like they always had is like being thrown ten years into the past, Archie and Veronica on one side of the booth, him and Betty on the other with him trying to eat one handed so he can keep his arm around her. He can’t help the smile that crosses his face when he sees Veronica give Betty her pickles as Betty gives Archie her onions. Archie tosses him his tomato and he’s about to ask for the ketchup when Betty slides it down the table to him, mouth full as she’s listening to Archie talk about how the business has been going.

Jughead’s chest almost hurts at the simplicity of it. The knowledge he’s going to destroy it in the name of his father makes his eyes burn. Betty must see the change in him because she lays her head on his shoulder, snuggling up as close as she can get so he can lean on her.

 _At least,_ he thinks, _I know this will never change._ He presses a kiss to the top of her head and tightens his arm around her, holding her as close as he can.

 

* * *

 

Walking into the Whyte Wyrm like he had every right to be there took all the confidence he could muster. He doesn’t think he’s been in it since the day Hiram Lodge took Betty and he thought his dad might be able to help.

_Shakily getting off the motorcycle, Jughead vows to himself to never tell anyone how terrified he had been on the, admittedly short, ride to the Whyte Wyrm. Taking off the helmet and setting it on the seat of the bike, he braces himself as he walks through the door of the bar._

_Looking for his dad as soon as he enters, he tries to avoid eye contact with anyone else, knowing that if they think he’s looking for a challenge someone will be more than willing to start one. With his eyes sweeping across the bar, he spots a table of Serpents near the back and his shoulders fall a bit. He had been hoping to catch his dad alone._

_Making his way to the back, he mentally checks himself to keep it together, especially for where he is at the moment._

_Tapping him on the shoulder, he keeps his voice steady as he says, “Dad.”_

_“Jug?” FP asks, turning around to face him._

_“I need to talk to you,” he tells him, tilting his head in indication that he wants to go outside. “Privately.”_

_FP’s eyes sharpen at his tone and he starts to stand when someone interjects, “Ahh, FP, you’re not going to just jump because your boy says so, are you?”_

_Twisting to look at the person speaking, Jughead struggles to keep his mouth shut._

_“Come on, Jug,” his dad says, leading him out of the bar._

He hates reliving that day, the not knowing whether or not Betty was okay. Knowing who took her but not where she was or what she was going through had given him nightmares for a while after it happened.

Taking a deep breath before opening the door he steels himself for what he’s going to find. The almost silence that greets him as he walks in feels deafening.

Looking around the bar, his eyes land on a few vaguely familiar faces, faces he only knows from people carrying his dad home or running into his dad while he was out with the Serpents. Telling himself it’ll be alright he walks up to the one he thinks he’s seen the most often.

“Well look who it is,” the guy says. “Little FP! I’d recognize that hat anywhere.”

Jughead manages a less than enthused smile. “Yeah, just call me Jughead.”

The guy laughs and claps him on the shoulder. “Sure, sure.”

He can feel the movement behind him as someone walks up and says, “Well what do we have here? The prodigal son has returned.”

The guy Jughead thinks he knows rolls his eyes. “Tall Boy. Go sit down.”

Tall Boy just huffs a laugh out. “Nah, I want to know why we haven’t seen FP’s namesake in all these years and he only shows up once FP gets in trouble. Still pretending you’re not a Jones?”

“I was always a Jones,” Jughead says firmly, his eyes narrowing. “I went to college.”

“But you never came home,” Tall Boy tells him, looking him up and down in what he thinks might be disappointment. “You never took up FP’s legacy. Maybe if you had-”

“Don’t,” Jughead interrupts furiously.  

A crowd had gathered around them in the time they were speaking, most of them in Serpent jackets, arms crossed and hard looks in their eyes.

“I heard your wife is FP’s lawyer now,” the guy whose name he still doesn’t know says quietly.

Jughead nods. He’d prefer to have left Betty out of all of this but he supposes he should have expected his dad to tell his friends that his only son got married. “She is.”

“You married some Northsider, didn’t you?” Tall Boy questions, a derisive look on his face. “The Cooper girl, if I remember right.”

“Keep my wife’s name out of your mouth,” Jughead all but snarls at him. Tall Boy’s eyes widen before his mouth twitches just slightly, like he’s pleased he found a way to rile Jughead up.

“Ahh, there he is, I finally see your father in you,” Tall Boy says smugly, relaxing his stance a bit, the others following suit.

Spine stiffening, he furrows his brows at him. “I assume you know why I’m here.”

“My guess is that you want information,” Tall Boy responds. “For your dad?  _On_  your dad? For your lawyer wife?”

Jughead sees the opportunity and takes it. “For revenge.”

His body relaxes only slightly when he sees the looks of approval coming from the other Serpents.

“Has the Serpent Prince finally come back to his roots?” he hears someone ask, turning to see the owner of the voice pushing their way through the crowd. The guy is tall, taller than even Jughead with narrowed eyes and a smug smile on his face.

“Sweet Pea,” Tall Boy moans out, “go away.”

“No, no, I think we need to hear what Jones has to say for himself.”

Jughead groans to himself, letting his head fall back as he looks at the ceiling while crossing his arms.

He turns to Sweet Pea after a moment. “What do you want to know?”

“Why now?”

Jughead scoffs at him. “Oh I don’t know, maybe because my dad is in prison for a crime he didn’t commit?”

“You know, if you had been here-”

“Don’t start with that bullshit,” Jughead insists, interrupting Sweet Pea. “My dad wanted me out of this town and I think you know that. Putting your own daddy issues on me isn’t going to make you feel better.”

Sweet Pea takes a step closer to him and Jughead stiffens. “What did you just say?”

The man Jughead still didn’t know the name of steps between them. A hand to Sweet Pea’s chest, he pushes him back just enough to get his point across. “Stop it, go take your dramatics somewhere else, kid.”

“Fuck you, Monty.”

 _Ahh,_ he thinks. _Monty._ That sounds right.

Monty huffs an exasperated laugh at Sweet Pea. “I changed your diapers, Sweets, don’t start that shit with me.”

The tittered laughter ripples through the crowd, causing Sweet Pea to blush. Jughead bites back a smile and schools his expression before Monty turns back to look at him.

Clapping a hand on Jughead’s shoulder, Monty looks around at the gathered Serpents. “Don’t forget whose son this is when you’re talking to him, am I clear? If you wouldn’t say it with FP here, you don’t need to say it at all now do you?”

There are a few mutinous looks among the gathered Serpents and Jughead tucks that information away for later.

“It appears FP’s kid here is looking for revenge and I say we help him with it,” Monty tells them. “Serpents take care of their own.”

Murmurs of agreement trickle throughout the group and he almost wants to fall over, he had thought it was going to be a lot harder than it was shaping up to be. He wonders what the catch is.

“If Jughead wants to be initiated, I give him my blessing, it’s what FP would want.” Monty claps his shoulder once more, harder than before. “If he can prove he can handle it, who are we to tell him he can’t?”

“Handle what?” Jughead all but whispers to Monty.

“The trials. You’ll have to go through a series of trials to become a Serpent,” he’s informed. “Not to worry, son, only the last is going to prove difficult.”

“The last?”

Monty nods, steering him to an empty chair at one of the tables as the crowd disperses. “The gauntlet, Jughead. It’s the most physically taxing of all.”

“Gauntlet?” Jughead hopes it’s not at all what it sounds like.

“Mmhmm,” Monty hums out. “For the men, of course. We don’t put our hands on our women.”

“And what do the women do?” Jughead asks with apprehension.

Picking up an almost empty beer glass, Monty downs it before setting it down and wiping off his mouth. “They dance.”

Mentally shrugging, Jughead thinks that doesn’t sound so bad. “Dance?”

“Yeah,” Monty answers. “They dance on the stage over there, a bit of a striptease really, for their initiation.”

Jughead considers it. It’s...well it’s not good but it’s better than getting beaten up he supposes. “So, Monty, tell me, has a man ever done the dance?”

Throwing his head back, laughing, Monty shakes his head as he answers him. “No, no men. Women only. Like I said, we don’t lay hands on our women.”

“You just watch them strip?”

Monty’s face looks serious as he rubs his fingers down and over the beard on his face. “The women, they make their choice same as the men. We can’t make them dance just like we can’t make you run the gauntlet.” Giving Jughead a hard look he narrows his eyes. “Why? You think your wife will want to become a Serpent?”

He almost chokes on his tongue at the idea. “No. No, my wife will not be becoming a Serpent. And she’s definitely not going to strip in a room full of strangers either.”

Monty looks at him slyly. “Must be a looker, then.”

Giving him a measured look, Jughead just nods as he picks at the table. “That she is.”

“I thought so, especially if she’s the daughter of Alice Cooper.”

Swallowing the retort in his throat he just shrugs. “So,” he says, changing the topic, “what are these trials I need to go through?”

Tall Boy sits down loudly, startling Jughead. “First, you get to take care of Hot Dog.”

“Hot Dog?”

Tall Boy nods. “The fourth.”

“So it’s a family name, I see,” Jughead replies sarcastically.

“It is,” Tall Boy replies with a sharp smile. “And if you want to be a Serpent, you’re gonna learn to love him.”

“Please tell me Hot Dog isn’t a person?”

“I guess you’ll see now won’t you?”

Groaning, Jughead leans back into his chair, adjusting his beanie and trying to convince himself he’s doing the right thing. He tunes out the other trials as he thinks about his soft wife in their new soft bed, wishing he was with her instead.

 

* * *

 

Walking through the trailer door he lets his jacket fall to the floor as he tosses the beanie onto the coffee table. It’s dark and quiet throughout the trailer and assuming Betty is in the bed asleep, he drags himself down the short hallway to the bedroom. Stopping short in the doorway he looks up at the soft light just barely lighting up the side of the bed Betty is laying on.

He smiles at the sight. Stripping down until he’s just in his boxers, he crawls into bed next to her, pulling her into him, against his chest. Her little grumbles at being moved make him want to press kisses into the skin of her neck but he refrains, he knows how tired she’d been the entire day and they could probably both use the sleep.

Almost totally asleep before he can turn the small light off next to Betty, he circles his arm tightly back around her and breathes in the scent of her hair before drifting off.

It’s still dark when he feels himself waking up, a shiver crawling up his spine as he tries to place the sensation he’s feeling. Bleary eyed and slightly confused, he tries to open his eyes to his surroundings when he feels fingers he knows are Betty’s running across his stomach, making his muscles contract.

“Betty?” he mumbles into the quiet of the room. “What’re you doing?”

“Taking care of you,” she whispers, gripping the waistband of his boxers and tugging them down. “Now _shhh._ ”

He thinks about rolling her over and holding her hands above her head for her bossiness but he’s too tired to care the moment her tongue joins in, the tip of it trailing across his skin, soft kisses following down the path she takes his boxers, the tickling sensation of her fingertips up his inner thighs as he can feel her breath on him.

Fully awake, he’s about to put his hands in her hair to hold her still so he can thrust into her mouth when the bedroom door slams loudly into the wall, scaring Betty so badly she jumps and gets tangled in the sheets, falling to the floor with a loud squeak.

His eyes are wide and he thinks about looking for a weapon when he remembers he’s naked and his almost equally naked wife is on the floor. Grabbing for the blankets, he tries to cover himself up as he reaches for Betty, pulling on her hard enough he almost drags her up the side of the bed, trying to shove her behind him.

“What the fu-” is all he gets out before he’s jumped on by something panting and furry.

“Hot Dog, be nice,” a gruff voice says in a firm tone.

“Hot Dog?” Betty mutters behind his shoulder. She’s grabbed a pillow to hold in front of her as he tries to push the big sheepdog off of him.

“The first trial,” he hears, recognizing Monty’s voice.

He’s trying to get his bearings still when he hears a voice that makes him groan out loud.

“Damn, Jones, is this your wife?”

“Ugh, Sweet Pea, I’m so glad you’re in my house uninvited right now.”

“Sorry, kid,” Tall Boy says, looking anything but sorry. “You wanted to be a Serpent. This is how it starts. Might want to put on some shorts though, Hot Dog can get...a little nosy, if you know what I mean.”

The three men in the doorway laugh with each other like it’s not barely dawn outside, making him count to ten in his head to maintain his temper. “How long?”

“I don’t know, Jones,” Sweet Pea says. “From the look of you, I’d say less than average-”

“Get the _hell_ out of my bedroom,” Betty pipes up, her patience for the situation gone. Jughead sees Sweet Pea wink at her and only Monty has the grace to look sheepish at barging in on their privacy like they had.

“Sorry, Mrs. Jones,” Monty tells Betty. “It’s tradition.”

“The tradition can start after I have clothes on,” Betty insists, stepping off the bed with the pillow in front of her, looking both impressively intimidating and ridiculous.

Staring the men down, they all start to back away as Jughead continues to push at Hot Dog, trying to get him off the bed.

“Jesus Christ, it’s no wonder a Jones married her, she really is Alice’s daughter, isn’t she?” he hears Tall Boy mutter.

As soon as they’re gone, Betty walks to the bedroom door, slamming it before turning on him with angry eyes. “You could have warned me!”

Jughead flops back onto the mattress. “I didn’t know, baby.”

Taking a deep breath, Betty seems to calm herself as she walks toward him, climbing back on the bed and crawling over him, settling her thighs on his hips, reaching out to pet Hot Dog. “We need a deadbolt for that door, Jug.”

It’s all Jughead can do to keep from laughing at the situation.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys. I am sick. And I still did this for you. Now that is _love_ okay? 
> 
> Pure unadulterated love. 
> 
> We're about to move into the plot! And Sweet Pea, damn son, you're harsh, my goodness. He's got jokes, everyone! 
> 
> I want to know what you think! Tell me, tell me, don't be shy. Okay, fine. I'm sick and want to be entertained. Sue me. 
> 
> Pfft. Calling me out like that? Who even? I am but an innocent lamb of love over here. Who is also planning a dirty birdy one shot so I obvs can't be stopped. Meh, it's fine. We're fine. Right? Right. 
> 
> BESOS MY STUDLY MUFFINS! Besos to you alllllll! 
> 
> And, as always, you can [tumble](https://thetaoofbetty.tumblr.com/) with me if you want.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HERE WE GO, Y'ALL. 
> 
> So, anyway, here's chapter 3, brought to by many cookies, procrastination breaks, and Maria. Okay, I guess me, too because like, I wrote it but, really, I think I did the least out of all of us. 
> 
> Though, to be fair, the 45 mins I spent contemplating dying my hair brought me some motivation so there's that to consider. Hmm. 
> 
> READ ON, YOU GREMLINS! 
> 
> (you're not gremlins, you guys, but the gremlins think it's a compliment, they don't know they're whoa levels of fug okay? 'tis a secret) 
> 
> Also, happy birthday to Jughead Jones! You're growing up so fast, boo. Sniff.

“You’re putting her in danger, Jughead,” Veronica warns him with thinly veiled anger.

He starts to fidget with his hands, annoyed with her and not wanting to start another showdown Lodge vs. Jones fight. “Veronica-”

“A gang, Jughead? A gang!? What are you thinking?” Veronica screeches at him in Archie’s living room. “Do you not get how dangerous that is? And Betty is-”

“Betty is  _my_ wife, Veronica. And she knows what’s going on,” he snaps at her. “I can keep her safe.”

“Really?” she questions him, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow as she taps a shoe on the wood floor in the Andrews’ living room. “And what happens when  _you’re_ the danger to her?”

Jughead stiffens at the implication. “What the  _fuck_ does that mean?”

Veronica takes a step closer to him, pursing her lips in irritation. “Do you even know what you’re going to have to do in this gang? Do you even know what they do? What happens, Jughead, when you need to do something illegal or questionable and Betty gets stuck in the middle?”

“You think I’d let anyone touch her? Ever?” he says lowly, glaring at her. “Have I ever, in the entire time we’ve known each other, let someone even whisper the thought of putting a hand on Betty?”

“None of that is going to matter when someone decides she’s good, I don’t know…collateral or something!” Veronica screeches at him, her voice going shrill and her eyes on fire.

Taking a deep breath, Jughead starts to rub his eyes with the palms of his hands. “Veronica-”

“No! This is stupid, even for you-”

“Excuse me? What does that mean?” Jughead interrupts, his hands falling to his sides as he stares at her.

“You never look past the forest for the trees, Jughead. You just get impulsive and end up making stupid decisions!” she shouts, throwing her hands in the air. “Don’t you remember, oh say, about twelve years ago when you couldn’t keep your mouth shut and my dad ended up-”

“Ronnie, don’t,” Archie interrupts her, stepping between them. He’d been the buffer between their fights, always trying to make them see each other’s side. “This isn’t our place-”

“Archie, I’m warning you,” Veronica says, poking a finger into his chest, “don’t play peacemaker right now, he is too involved to see the big picture on this! It’s  _his_ dad, Archie, how can he possibly be objective in any way?”

All Jughead can see is the back of Archie’s shirt as he stands there silently, jaw clenched and angry. The idea, the thought that he would ever willingly put Betty in danger is something he can’t look past. Of all of Veronica’s faults, of all the times he’s let something go because he knows how much Betty needs her, this is the one that cuts.

“Ronnie, listen,” Archie tells her, and Jughead can see his hands land on her shoulders, grounding her and seemingly calming her down, “this isn’t high school anymore, this is their real life and Jughead’s dad is in jail, Ron. Betty is his lawyer and that’s probably more dangerous than Jughead joining the Serpents.”

Jughead feels like the air is knocked out of him at those words. He  _knew_ that. He did. They’d talked about it and how to handle the possibilities. Truthfully, he’d have a better chance keeping her safe as a Serpent while she was defending his dad than not and for that reason alone, he’d still thinking joining them is worth it.

“Did you think, Veronica, that Betty and I haven’t talked about it? That we don’t know the risks we’re taking?” Jughead asks, still talking to Archie’s back but he can see her eyes over Archie’s shoulder.

She looks defeatedly at him, her shoulders dropping for a moment before straightening back up and breaking from Archie’s grip. As she walks past him she stops and without looking at him she says, “If anything happens to her, I’ll never forgive you.”

Walking past him and to the front door, he hears Archie sigh as he turns to him and he’s slammed into a memory of walking past Archie, saying almost the same thing, his anger barely contained at the threat hanging over her head.

_“If anything happens to Betty because of any of this, I will never forgive you.”_

“Jug,” he hears, pulling him out of his thoughts, “You know how Ronnie is-”

He’s about to nod his agreement when he hears the clicking of heels in a familiar pattern and his body relaxes at the sound.

“What’s wrong with Veronica?” Betty asks him as he turns around. “Jug?”

“She is, let’s say, not supportive of our plans,” Jughead informs her as he steps forward to kiss her hello, bringing an arm around her and breathing her in.

“Did the two of you fight?”

Huffing out a breath, he lifts a shoulder, looking at Archie instead of Betty. “Of course we did, Betty, it’s what we seem to do best.”

“Yeah,” Betty murmurs. “I’ll call her in a little while.”

“How was FP, Betty?” Archie asks, switching topics, Jughead giving him a thankful look in the process.

Betty leans into Jughead, searching for comfort and his heart drops. He knows that means his dad was being uncooperative. “He’s not being very helpful, Jug. I need him to talk but he keeps talking around the subject. All they’ve really got is his confession and they’re running with it.”

Kissing her temple, he pulls her tightly into his side. “We’ll figure it out, I know we will.”

 

* * *

 

“Did it occur to you, Jug, that maybe I want to be there?” Betty is yelling at him, gesturing and pointing at him before putting her hands on her hips, a sure sign of danger.

“Oh yeah, it occurred to me, Betty,” Jughead responds, glaring at her. “It did, however, also occur to me that it’s  _never_ going to happen!”

“Excuse me?”

“Never,” he starts, walking towards her, “going to happen. Not ever, Elizabeth.” When he reaches her, he sees that her eyes are on fire. “If you think, for one second, that I want you anywhere near-”

“You don’t get a say, Jughead!” she shouts, cutting him off.

“I do. On this, yes I do,” he insists in a dangerous tone.

Jughead can see her swallow her retort. She’s not done yelling at him, he knows that much but he’s not going to give in on this.

Her face is flushed with anger when she takes a deep breath and asks, “Why?”

“Why?” he repeats. “You want to know why?”

“Yes, Jughead, I want to know why my husband doesn’t want me at one of the most important things he’s got going on in his life.”

“Is that what this is about? You think I don’t want you to be there to exclude you?” he asks, surprised. “I am not excluding you, I am protecting you.”

“Protecting me?” Betty scoffs. “From what? I already know what they’re going to do, Jug.”

He exhales loudly, bringing his hand to her face, tilting her chin to make her look up at him. “Knowing and seeing are different things. I don’t want you there because I need to be able to think and I won't be able to if I know you're watching.”

“You need to think while you’re getting the shit beat out of you? Really?” Betty’s still angry, he can tell, her tone hard and her body language closed off.

“Betty-”

“No, Jughead, this isn’t just about you or me, this is about our lives and you’re trying to take this huge risk, one I am _not_ a fan of by the way, all while keeping me out of it for my protection? What about yours? Have you ever thought that I am just as concerned about your safety? That maybe, I don’t know, I’d like you to stay the fuck alive!” she yells at him, pushing him away when he tries to put his arms around her.

“Quit that,” he tells her softly, still trying to get a hold on her.

“No,” she says icily, going to walk past him and to the front door of the trailer.

He almost rolls his eyes as he turns around to catch her around the waist, picking her up and heading towards the bedroom, her squirming in his grip the entire way. “You know, I’ve been pulling this move since we were sixteen, you’d think you’d be used to it by now.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve been thinking of ways to get out of it since we were sixteen,” she says through gritted teeth, still wiggling and trying to kick him.

“Any luck so far?” he asks, completely amused.

“Shut up, Jughead.”

He tries not to laugh as he walks through the bedroom door, tossing her onto the mattress of their bed.

“Now-”

Betty throws a pillow at him, interrupting him.

He shakes off the impact and starts over. “Now, as I was saying, we’re going to deal with this right now.”

“Unless the next words out of your mouth are, “Betty, I’m sorry, of course you can be there when I go through the gauntlet, I know how much you’d worry about me otherwise” then I don’t want to hear it,” she states.

“That’s not at all what I planned to say.” Walking towards her, he pulls his shirt over his head, dropping it to the ground, the reinstated beanie falling with it.

Her eyes are narrowed as she stares at him, visibly swallowing when he reaches for his belt buckle and undoing it, his eyes never leaving her face.

“What are you doing?” she asks, leaning up on her elbows, pink cheeked as she follows his movements.

“I am,” he says, reaching out and grabbing her ankles, pulling her flat on her back and across the bed towards him, “distracting you.”

Betty’s breathing is slightly erratic. “And you think that’ll work?”

“Yeah.” Letting her legs go, he crawls between them and over her, the leather end of his belt caressing the bare skin where her shirt had bunched up, making her break out in goosebumps. “Yeah, I think it’ll work just fine.”

 

* * *

 

“Leave the little woman at home?” Sweet Pea asks condescendingly while taking a drink out of his near empty beer glass.

Rolling his eyes, he ignores him, checking his phone instead. Seeing nothing from Betty, he’s not sure if it’s a good or bad thing. His ego would like to think he fucked her into the mattress hard enough to knock her out for the rest of the night.

He’s found out, though, that ego is never good indicator of circumstances so he’s about to send a text to Archie to check up on her when he’s interrupted.

“You ready, Jughead?” Monty asks, sitting down next to him at the bar.

Shrugging, Jughead spins to face him. “Guess we’ll find out won’t we?”

“I bet,” Sweet Pea proclaims, “that Jones here, cries.”

Monty sighs. “Sweet Pea-”

“I would bet cash money that he’ll cry more than that hot little piece of ass he’s married to does when she sees his broken face,” Sweet Pea cuts in, smirking at Jughead.

Taking a deep breath and using all of his energy to calm himself, he smiles at Sweet Pea. “Are you jealous or what?”

“Excuse me?”

“Come on, man, I don’t know what the chip on your shoulder is about but it either needs to get laid or fuck off, alright?” Jughead tells him, turning back around and shooting a quick text to Archie about checking on Betty.

He’d already done the other initiations, they’d had Hot Dog for a few days before Monty had come to pick him up. He’d recited their laws and grabbed the knife out of the snake enclosure and Jughead thinks making him wait to go through to gauntlet is an unwritten initiation just to make him sweat. Wanting to be done before Betty comes looking for him anyway, he taps his fingers against the bar top and sits in silence as Monty tells Sweet Pea to shut up.

Ignoring Sweet Pea’s irritated glare, he turns back to Monty who’s now talking with Tall Boy. “So, when is this whole gauntlet thing going to happen?”

“You’re not gonna like it, Jughead,” Monty says. “It happens at Sunnyside.”

Jughead sits up straight. “What? Why? I told you, I told all of you, I don’t want my wife seeing it.”

“It’s-”

“Let me guess,” Jughead interrupts, a scowl on his face, “It’s tradition.”

Monty just shrugs, nodding at him.

Not seeing any other option that he can get anyone to agree to, he just shakes his head in weary amusement. “Fine. Let’s get this over with then, alright?”

 

* * *

 

Later, when Jughead thinks of those moments, he’ll blur the pain out, the faces of the people he didn’t even know hitting him with a sort of morbid pride.

He’s staring at the side of the trailer, praying Betty stays inside, not knowing what she’s doing. Maybe she’s still asleep and blissfully unaware of what he’s doing. Or she could be in the shower, the water drowning out the noise coming from the yard. There’s a chance she’s working, her laptop open and headphones in to keep her from outside distractions.

Any one of them works for him as long as she stays away from it all.

The first hit comes to his stomach, making him want to double over and catch his breath. He thinks about Betty. He’s always thinking about her, but now he’s using memories of her to keep him centered. To keep him standing on his feet.

_He meets Betty Cooper when he’s five years old. His desk is next to hers in their kindergarten class, name tags taped at the top with big bold lettering spelling their names. Jughead can read some words but he doesn’t know the one on the desk next to his. He does know, though, that his spells Forsythe and he is not happy about it. As he’s sulking in his chair a little girl in a pink dress with white ruffles and hair that looks nothing like his runs up to him and says, “Hi, I’m Betty, I’m going to sit next to you!” And Jughead thinks that the name on the tag looks nothing like what she just said._

_“I don’t think so,” he says with a serious expression, “That doesn’t sound right.” He points to the name tag and looks back up at her. He notices then she has big green eyes and and a nice smile and she smells like cookies and there’s nothing Jughead likes more than cookies._

_“No that’s me, I’m Elizabeth but I like to be called Betty,” she says with a lift of her shoulders like it’s not a big deal. “I like your hat! What’s your name?”_

_“Jughead,” he tells her, still sulking over the Forsythe written on his desk._

The next hit catches his shoulder, the feel of knuckles on his skin making him want to gasp and grab his shoulder if do nothing else but try to chase the sting away. He clenches his fists and thinks about green eyes.

_They agree to meet each other in the gym, it’s the first real school dance he’s gone to and only because Betty asked him too. He’s not much for dancing or crowds or terrible music but he’d been asked by a pair of big green eyes and a hopeful smile and he’s always been terrible about saying no to Betty Cooper._

_She’s wearing a pink dress with white hearts on it and a pink headband, keeping her hair off of her face. Jughead thinks she’s the prettiest girl in the room as she drags him along behind her, telling him there are snacks if he wants some, though she thinks they’re not very good. They stand by the snack table for a little while, Betty talking to people she knows and Jughead standing next to her, eating. Archie’s been dancing with his date the entire time and he pretends that he doesn’t notice Betty pretending not to care._

_When he can’t take the sadness behind her smile any longer, he asks her to dance. She smiles brightly at him and takes his hand as he walks out to the middle of the dance floor. She puts her hands around his neck and he places his carefully on her hips as they sway along to the music._

_“Thank you, Juggie,” she says to him, moving herself a little closer to him._

_He manages to get out, “You’re welcome, Betty.” It’s the first time he really thinks about the fact that he’s touching her like that. It’s all new to him and he’s immediately distracted by her chest pressing against him. Reminding himself to breathe, he tries to concentrate on not stepping on her feet but he keeps losing track because there are actual breasts touching him and he thinks he’s going to pass out._

_Jughead has never been both more grateful and more resentful for the song ending and Betty pulling away from him. He suddenly has the thought that he might understand Archie a little better now when he talks about girls._

_He bravely endures four more dances with Betty before the night is over and after that night he always agrees to go with her to the dances, even if he still sort of hates them. Betty likes them and having someone to dance with makes her happy and having Betty pressed up against him makes him happy._

_He may hate Valentine’s Day but he likes Betty Cooper._

The next hit is in his ribs, knocking the air out of him, making him choke out a gasp for the first time, the satisfied look of the person who punched him burning behind his eyes as he takes a second to regroup before taking another step.

_The first thing he notices is legs. He knows she’s taller than she was last year but he didn’t realize that the only thing that seemed to grow was her legs. As his eyes travel up he sees her swimsuit isn’t the one from last year, no, this one is white with a tie around the neck, a tie that seems to be making her chest more visible than he’s ever seen it._

_Not knowing how to respond he just turns around and walks back into the river where Archie is still floating on his back._

_It takes another ten or fifteen minutes before Betty makes her way into the water with them and he’s trying to act normal but Betty is jumping around with them, laughing and splashing water each time Archie throws more water in her face. Jughead declares himself hungry and Betty tells him she made his favorite sandwich and it’s in the bag by her towel._

_Sitting on the towel, eating, helps him clear his head where he can at least concentrate again. He can hear Betty yelling something to him but he can’t make out the words. Jughead gets up to walk closer so he can hear, walking down the crooked path that leads to where she is when he notices she’s walking out of the water, at a slight jog to catch up to where he’s at, when he feels the impact of something immovable._

_He walked into a tree._

_He actually walked into a tree._

_He can hear Archie laughing loudly from the edge of the river as Betty hurries her pace to see if he’s okay._

_“Juggie! Are you hurt?” Betty asks, looking to see the bark of the tree cut his shoulder._

_He’s standing there miserable but tells her, “No, it’s fine, I just wasn’t looking where I was going.”_

_“I was going to tell you to put some sunscreen on, remember the sunburn you got last year? You looked like a flaky lobster for a week,” Betty reminds him, scrunching her nose up in memory of it. And it was gross, he burned bad enough for his skin to peel after it finally stopped hurting._

_“Come on, I’ll help you before I eat, okay?”_

_The memory of her jogging towards him, legs moving, chest bouncing is going to be stuck in his head forever. And now she’s going to put her hands all over him._

_If he hadn’t walked into a tree he might declare it one of the best days ever._

Getting punched in the face isn’t so bad, he thinks, when the rest of you is already hurting. It’s just adding to the tally of inevitable pain at the end. It does make him almost stumble, catching him off guard, the jeers from the Serpents at his misstep making him refocus on what’s important.

_“Hey there, Juliet,” he says to her as she opens the window with a confused smile. “Nurse off duty? You haven’t gone full Yellow Wallpaper on me yet, have you?”_

_She laughs lightly at him. “They’re crazy, Jug. I think my parents are crazy.”_

_“They’re parents, they’re all crazy.”_

_“They just kept lying to me. I don’t even know if they know where Polly is, if they do, then they are purposefully keeping me from my sister, which is ridiculous. If they don’t then they’re totally delusional! But, Jug, what if it’s me? What if I’m the delusional one?”_

_“Betts, you’re not. They’re gaslighting you, alright? You’re not delusional or crazy, there is nothing wrong with you,” he tells her, settling a hand on her shoulder. “They must be hiding something, there’s no other reason.”_

_“I know you’re right, logically, but everyone is acting like everything is normal! It’s not. Polly is missing. Jason Blossom is also missing. My sister was committed to some creepy home for troubled youth. Troubled youth? Polly? That doesn’t even make sense.”_

_“What if I’m next, Juggie? What happens when I do something they don’t like and it finally makes them send me away? What if I go crazy, too?” Betty pleads, “I don’t want to end up like my parents, acting like everything is okay when I know it’s not.”_

_“We’re not our parents, Betty. We don’t have to turn into them,” Jughead assures her, “Also-”_

_He stops and thinks he almost did something stupid. Is it ever really right to confess your feelings for someone when they’re upset? Or confused? He doesn’t think so but he also thinks he’s going to explode if he doesn’t. Veronica’s plan be damned, there’s too many steps and he’s waited for so long._

_He’s definitely about to do something stupid._

_“What?” Betty asks, and he can see her eyes flicker to his lips and back to his eyes. That’s fairly encouraging though it doesn’t make him move or say anything._

_“What?” she repeats with a small laugh and smile._

_He doesn’t hesitate again before he reaches for her with both hands, putting them on either side of her jaw and presses his lips to hers. They’re the sort of soft that make you rethink your definition of the word and they taste like the sweet cherry of her chapstick. He can feel her lips press back to his and his world spins a little faster._ _  
_ _It lasts only a moment longer before she pulls back a little but he can see she’s happy about what just happened. He lets out a sigh of relief. He can’t believe he did it, he kissed Betty Cooper._

_It’s the smartest thing he’s ever done._

The second hit to his face makes him take a step back. Swallowing, he feels the trickle of blood down his chin and leading down his chest and he knows his lip is busted. A punch to the eye catches him off guard as he’s hit in the kidney by another Serpent. His fists are still clenched, his body hurts and he steels himself as he sees Sweet Pea at the end of the line. Taking the deepest breath he can he stands in front him, his eyes narrowing in stubborn defiance and he thinks of green eyes one last time.

_“What are you doing?” he can hear Betty ask sleepily as he trails kisses down over the skin of her stomach and over her hips. “Jug, today is-”_

_He smirks into her skin as she loses her train of thought and moans while reaching to grab a handful of the sheet beneath her. When her hips jerk up at the first pass of his tongue across the the crease of her thigh, he uses the palm of his hand to hold her down on the bed._

_“What did we talk about, Betty?”_

_Her legs are restless as she tries to concentrate on what he’s saying. “Uhm, about staying still?”_

_“Yes, what are you supposed to do?”_

_“Not move.”_

_He traces small circles from her abdomen down and over her hip bones. “And what are you doing?”_

_“Having an involuntary bodily response-”_

_The soft smacking sound of his hand lightly coming down against the skin of her inner thigh jolts her out of her sarcastic answer. They both know it’s what she was going for._

_“How many times are we going to go over this, Elizabeth?”_

_Betty tries to pull her knees up as she arches her back against the mattress. “I dunno.”_

_Pushing her knees back down and apart he lightly runs a finger down and over her until it just barely brushes over her clit. He’s smiling at the sound that suspiciously sounds like a whine when he schools his face. “Is that an appropriate answer?”_

_“It could be,” she tells him, looking at him through her lashes._

_The sound of another soft smack against her thigh sounds out into their bedroom that’s quickly followed by another moan._

_His tone is firm when he says, “Elizabeth.”_

_Getting her full attention she gives him the big eyes that mean she’s trying to butter him up._

_“Don’t you give me those, eyes. I’m immune,” he insists, knowing damn well he is absolutely not immune._

_Betty sighs out, half a groan and half an acceptance. “Fine. I’ll behave.”_

_Seriously doubting that but taking advantage of her amenable state, he tells her, “Get up here.”_

_Still moving in her partially sleepy state she’s a little wobbly as she gets to her knees, hair a tangled mess and tired eyes and he’s never quite gotten over how beautiful she is. Pulling her back against his chest, moving her legs to the outside of his as he helps her slide down onto him he wraps one around her stomach, holding her to him as they move together while the palm of his other hand comes up to push against the base of her throat with a firm but gentle pressure._

_Betty’s hands move to hold onto his arm as he applies a little more pressure as he keeps her in place while he thrusts into her from behind._

_The little panting moans slipping out of her mouth as her head falls back slightly to where he can see her mouth open and her eyes fluttering is going to drive him crazy. After a soft nip at her earlobe with his teeth he whispers, “Touch yourself.”_

_Immediately he can feel her right hand move down and start circling her clit as he moves faster. The sound of skin on skin and the increasing volume of moaning in the quiet of the room sends them both over the edge, Jughead tightening his hand against her throat to make her come l_ _ouder and harder. Slowing his pace to help them both cool and calm down he smiles into her hair as she huffs out a slurred, “I love you, Juggie.”_

_Falling to the bed together he pulls her into his arms until her head is resting on his chest when he tells her, “Always?”_

_She laughs at him. “How about forever?”_

The punch from Sweet Pea almost spins him around, making him dizzy and wishing he could fall in front of them all. He won’t give them the satisfaction of seeing him prostrate on the ground for them. They wanted to beat him down and he walked through their gauntlet but he’ll never kneel before them. Sweet Pea is smirking at him, looking far too self satisfied when Jughead straightens up, flexing his fingers before curling them into a fist.

Hitting Sweet Pea with a right hook to the jaw is, he thinks, one of the most satisfying things he’s done in years. Taken by surprise, Sweet Pea falls, landing onto his back in the damp grass with Jughead glaring down at him.

The Serpents behind him have gone silent, confused on what’s happened and what they should do so when Jughead speaks, it carries through the night.

“Don’t ever talk about my wife again, do you understand me?”

He’s about to walk off when he catches the flash of blonde to the side, standing there in the silence, separate from the crowd of Serpents and then all he sees is Betty. With her hair down and messy around her shoulders, wearing a too thin shirt for the weather, and tears falling down her face, clenching her fists so hard the blood dripping from them is visible to him even with a swollen eye.

One last memory slams into him as he starts to stumble over to her, ignoring the crowd behind him.

_They had been in the library and she had been staring straight ahead looking angry and when he finally caught her attention she’d put her hand on the paper she was working on and he had seen blood smeared on it._

_“Betty? Are you okay?”_

_“What?” she replies, grabbing the paper and pulling it off the table. “I’m fine, Jug.”_

_“You’re bleeding, did you cut yourself?”_

_“It’s fine.”_

_He grabs her hand expecting some sort of morbid paper cut but he sees four nail punctures and he’s horrified she’s done something like that to herself. The amount of pressure alone it would take to pierce your own skin is immense. “This is probably the very definition of not fine, Betty. What’s going on?”_

_She pulls her hand back, looking ashamed. “I don’t even know, sometimes I don’t even know I’ve done it until it’s happened.”_

_“Have you told your parents? Or Archie? Kevin, maybe?”_

_“Of course not, you’re the first person to know. Or see it, probably. If my mom’s seen it she’s ignoring it which is what I would expect from her.”_

_“Come on, let’s get them cleaned up,” he tells her, leading her out of the library while making sure she’s not curling her hands back up._

_He doesn’t bring it up after, he knows she’d just make more of an effort to pretend it’s not a problem so he just slips whatever’s available into her hand when he sees her start to do it. Pens, pencils, a chapstick, even a gummy worm once. That one had made her laugh at least. If nothing else is available he’ll use his own hand to make her stop. She never says anything but she always squeezes his hand and he knows it’s gratitude._

When he makes it to her, he falls to his knees, grabbing her hands and prying them open, holding them against his cheeks as he looks up at her with tears in his eyes. He can feel the blood on his face mixing with the blood on her hands as she stares down at him, the anguish clear on her face.

“Was it worth it?” she asks him, her voice wavering and quiet.

He leans into her, resting his forehead on her abdomen, holding her hands to his face even tighter, like he can absorb the damage she’s done to herself if he just wishes it hard enough and whispers into her skin and into the dark of the night,  _“You’re worth it.”_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man. Look at what happened. Oh my god. Can you believe? 
> 
> What is even going on!? Okay, obvs stuff is going on. Duh. Veronica, catch a grip, girl. Archie, you sweet puppy, you try and that's enough. 
> 
> Our little bughead, guys, they're like yo hey, maybe let's not but then I'm like yes let's and then I apologized but then Betty cut me so now I'm just worried. Don't touch her mans I guess. 
> 
> Anyway, enough rambling, I feel the need to apologize to bughead for dayyyyys for this, I mean, full smut, much love, someone get Jughead a burger and Betty needs a milkshake am I right? 
> 
> But! Besos to you all! All the love and comments and all the sweet words you give me motivate every chapter because honestly, otherwise, yikes, no one wants to see that, you feel me? So, BESOS from me to you, like full frenchy besos. Let's make it a little weird, you dig? Nice. 
> 
> As always you can tumble with me if you want.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLOOOOO! 
> 
> It's been a little bit, am I right? But in my defense, uhm, well turns out I don't have one. Soooooo, may I distract you with a group hug and also maybe some muffins? 
> 
> Baked goods are always good for a distraction. 
> 
> Read on, my little fairies of delight!

**_July 2029_ **

_“You know what we should do?”_

_Betty turns to look at him, hands soapy from the dishwater as he dried to the plate in his hands. Their mundane after dinner ritual might be one of his favorite times of the day, just him and her with dirty dishes and the promise of an evening together, alone._

_“What’s that?”_

_Smiling at her, he set the plate down to take the next one from her. “Go on a vacation.”_

_She grins at him, eyes lighting up at the suggestion. “Oh yeah? To where?”_

_“I figure we could go on a road trip or maybe to a lake house. The beach? Spend an entire week in our bed here at home with me finding new and exciting ways to eat food off of you,” he whispers in her ear as he leans in before nipping her earlobe and smacking a kiss on her cheek. “I’m flexible, Betty.”_

_“Isn’t that my line?” she whispers back, turning her head to catch his lips in a kiss as he laughs at her response._

_“While you are very flexible, which is something I’d like to explore in detail as soon as these dishes are done, I was serious about the vacation thing.”_

_“When?”_

_Jughead shrugs at her. “Whenever we can get the time in the next couple months, what do you think?”_

_“I think it sounds fantastic,” she tells him, laying her head on his shoulder as she hands him another plate. “Now hurry up and dry these so we can see if my River Vixen uniform still fits.”_

_“You’re such a tease,” he groans out at the thought of that little cheerleader skirt and the plate in his hands almost slips out of his grip as Betty laughs at him._

 

* * *

 

“This isn’t what I had in mind at all when I suggested a vacation to Betty,” Jughead grumbles to himself, sitting at the bar of the Wyrm, wishing he was somewhere else.

“Aww, does the Serpent Prince miss his Northside Princess?” he hears Sweet Pea say behind him.

Rolling his eyes before turning around he spins on the barstool and leans back against the bar on his elbows. “Can I help you?”

Jughead sees a shorter guy he’d never seen before step in front of Sweet Pea with his hand out.

“Hey, I’m Fangs. You’re FP’s kid, right?”

Shaking the hand of the guy he gives him a tight smile. “That’s what they tell me. Nice to meet you, Fangs. Call me Jughead.”

“Ignore Sweets, Jones, I think his eye is still sore where you clocked him,” Fangs tells him, smirking. “I’ve never been upset to miss a gauntlet but yours is one I think I would have paid to see after hearing you laid Sweet Pea out flat.”

Huffing out a laugh, Jughead just raises his eyebrows at him before looking at Sweet Pea scowling next to Fangs. “He had it coming.”

“Knowing what I know of Sweets here, I’d be willing to believe that.”

“So, Jones, where is the wife?” Sweet Pea asks, leaning against the bar next to him. “Are we not good enough for your woman?”

Jughead considers him, his eyebrows narrowing in concentration. “Do you believe the shit that comes out of your mouth or…?”

Fangs laughs and slaps a hand on Sweet Pea’s shoulder. “Leave it alone, man.”

Moving to sit on the other side of Jughead, Fangs leans over to talk quietly to him. “Your wife is FP’s lawyer, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Watch out for her, Jones,” he says intently. “You know who the Ghoulies are, right?”

Jughead thinks back to his one and only interaction with the Ghoulies, when Betty almost killed him by sheer stress. Meeting the leader of the Ghoulies that day and finding Betty there hadn’t been on his wish list of things to do that day, that much he remembers.

 

_“Archie?” he hears someone say and he turns his head to see Veronica walking towards them._

_“Veronica?” is Archie’s response._

_He can’t control the worry in his voice as he asks, “Betty?” when he sees his girlfriend directly behind Veronica._

_“Jughead?” Betty responds to him in surprise._

_He’s moved between her and the Ghoulie he now knows is called Malachai he had been talking to before he’s even realized he’s done it. This is not a guy that she should be talking to, he’s the kind of guy that has no problem getting physical with girls, especially ones like Betty and Veronica._

_“Aw, look everyone, they know each other. Ladies, welcome to our humble abode, but I’ll tell you what I told your boys, you’re not getting anything from me,” Malachai tells them, sauntering closer to them._

_He steps further in the way of his access to Betty and tells him, “We’re good.” Turning and grabbing Betty by the hand he starts to walk out before anyone thinks to stop them. “Let’s go.”_

 

“I do,” he informs him. “I even met one once upon a time.”

“Which one?”

“Malachai.”

Fangs cringes. “Yeah, that’s not one you want on your bad side.”

Sweet Pea starts drumming his fingers on the bar. “Do you think he remembers you?”

Jughead shrugs. “It’s possible. It was over ten years ago.” Taking a breath, he spins back around to take a drink from the glass still sitting on the bar. “He might remember Betty, though, if he sees her.”

“She memorable or something?” Fangs asks.

“Oh yeah,” Sweet Pea answers for him as Jughead elbows him in the ribs.

“Really?” Jughead demands, glaring at him. “Do you want another black eye?”

Sweet Pea scoffs at him. “Whatever, man.”

“Sweet Pea,” Fangs scolds, shaking his head at him. “Jones, maybe you should keep an eye on your wife.”

“You say that like I’ve ever taken my eyes off of her,” Jughead responds, saluting him with his near empty glass. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go home to my wife.”

Patting Fangs on the shoulder like they had known each other longer than five minutes he gets up and walks out of the bar with a confidence he doesn’t feel. He’d known Betty might get some shit for defending his dad and she’d told him very clearly she was prepared for that. Sitting around the bar during his evenings while Betty worked on her case was like a slow torture. Keeping his ears open hasn’t turned up much but he knows if he wants to help Betty, to help his dad, he’s got to get more proactive.

Glad he’d only been drinking water, he jumps on his dad’s motorcycle and drives the short trek back to Sunnyside.

And Betty.

 

* * *

 

“I miss you,” he whispers into Betty’s neck as he crawls in bed and pulls her tightly into his chest after trying to be as quiet as he could while discarding his clothes.

Hearing a faint sniff, he stiffens. “Betty?”

“I miss you, too,” she tells him in a shaky voice.

Jughead turns her over to face him with a bit of maneuvering, his hand coming up to hold her face still as he lets his gaze take in her watery eyes. “What’s wrong?”

Betty pushes her head into the curve of his neck, her free arm going around him, holding onto him tightly. Her voice is muffled and he barely makes out her response.

“I know he didn’t do it, Jug, but he’s fighting me every step of the way and if I fail him-”

“Hey, none of that,” he interrupts, running a hand down over her hair. “If anyone is going to fail him, it’s him, okay?”

“Failing him is failing you and I can’t afford to do that,” she murmurs.

Pulling her even closer, he exhales into her hair. “There is no world where I blame you for the choices my dad is making.”

“But-”

“No buts,” he interrupts, smiling as she stifled a giggle into his shoulder. “Really, Betty?”

“I can’t help myself!” she exclaims, the words muffled. “You said “buts.”

Rolling his eyes in the dark, he flops over onto his back, taking her with him as he does, her head coming to rest on his chest. “Are you twelve?”

“Hey, if I remember correctly-”

“And you do.”

“-you would have thought that was _hilarious_ when we were twelve.”

“You think so, huh?” he asks, raising an eyebrow at her even though she can’t see it in the dark of the bedroom.

“I do. And I was there when you and Archie spent the entirety of sixth grade laughing every time anyone addressed our math teacher.”

He laughs at the memory. “Betty, come on. His name was Mr. Wankum, not laughing would have been impossible.”

“You’re such a boy, Jug,” she says to him, kissing his chest softly before wrapping her arm tighter around his middle.

“Well aren’t I lucky you like boys then?”

“Don’t push your luck, I could leave you for Veronica you know.”

Jughead grips her a little tighter. “Come on, Betts, don’t give the universe any ideas. Or Veronica. God knows I’m not entirely convinced there isn’t a wire in this mattress so she can figure out when to make her move.”

He can feel her shaking in laughter against him. “Jug, don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m serious,” he informs her. “I’m pretty sure she’s been planning my _“mysterious death”_ since college.”

“Oh my god, you are so dramatic,” Betty responds, lightly slapping him in the stomach. Jughead winces, still slightly sore from running the gauntlet the week before. Her voice is a little breathier when she says, “You know, if there were a wire in the mattress then we’ve been giving someone a show.”

Moving to look directly at her, he smirks. “Does my girl like that someone could be listening to us?”

Staring at the shape of her face in the moonlight, he can tell she’s biting her lip, looking up at him with wide eyes.

“No,” she denies, her fidgeting fingers giving away the truth.

“Liar,” he whispers, rolling her on her back and pushing a lock of hair behind her ear as he catches her eyes. “You like it, don’t you?”

“Of course not,” she insists, her breathing slightly heavier than before.

“You want someone to hear all the things I do to you, don’t you?” he whispers into her ear, his left hand skimming down her side until he reaches the hem of his shirt she’d been sleeping in. “I think, Elizabeth, that the thought of someone knowing what you sound like when I make you come gets you wet. Doesn’t it?”

“No,” she whispers to him, her thighs clenched together as her skin erupts in goosebumps from his trailing fingertips.

Moving his hand down to the outside of her thigh, he grips it with light pressure to spread her legs for him but the resistance he meets makes him raise his eyebrow at her. “Open your legs.”

Just staring at him, Betty stays still.

“Do you not want me to know how wet you are?” he asks, his fingers tightening on her minutely.

Shaking her head no just slightly, she’s turned her head just enough that he knows she’s not looking at him anymore.

“Do you know what good girls do, Elizabeth?”

“What?” is the whispered response he hears and he bites back a smile.

“They do what they’re told,” he informs her and smirks in the dark of the room when he feels her legs relax just a bit. “I thought you were supposed to be my good girl.”

Betty starts to squirm, her toes moving over his calves in her effort to keep her legs closed. “I am.”

“I don’t think so,” Jughead tells her, mock seriousness coloring his tone. “I think you’re being stubborn.”

“No-”

“Oh yes,” he says, “you are. My beautiful stubborn girl who doesn’t want admit she wants me to fuck her where people can hear.”

“Jug,” she whines at him, her legs rubbing together as his hand moves further up her thigh.

“Just the idea of it gets you going, doesn’t it?” he questions. With his fingers finally gripping the upper inside of her thigh, he can feel the heat coming off of her. Leaning back over her, he nips her earlobe before whispering, “The idea that someone might hear what a _good girl_ I think you are? How _amazing_ you sound when you come? The _perfect_ way you say my name when I hit a certain spot inside of you? The _wonderful_ moans and groans you make when my fingers slip and hit that swollen little clit of yours?”

Her legs spread a little wider at his words and he lets his hand move up until he’s got his thumb pressed against her, applying enough pressure to make her start to roll her hips against him.

“Do you want me to slip, Elizabeth?” he asks, his fingers sliding against her, not quite sliding into her, just teasing to the edge of reason until her composure is lost completely. “Does my pretty girl want to come on my hand?”

The quiet whimpers she’s letting loose tell him she’s getting closer to incoherency. She’s grasping at his shoulders, with her eyes closed as she lets her head fall back.

“Look at me,” he demands, the arm that had been underneath of her the entire time moving so he can take hold of the back of her neck, his long fingers holding her in place. Tilting her head to the side for better access to her neck, he sucks a mark onto the soft skin before looking back at her face, eyes still closed.

“I know you want to look at me, baby,” he breathes out into her ear, making her shiver. “Do you know why I know that?”

Her eyes open as she tries to move her head to look over at him. “Why?”

“My sweet girl wants to make me happy, and you know what would make me happy?”

Biting her lip again, she wiggles against his hand, seeking more pressure and friction when she whimpers out, “You like when I look at you while I come.”

“That’s right,” he agrees easily. “Now, what does my pretty girl want? To come on my hand? For me to fuck you into the mattress?”

Betty shakes her head, pushing his hand away from her with a small smile that’s lit up even brighter by the dim light of the room.

“Is that so?” he asks, pulling his hand away from her. “That’s what you want?”

Nodding at him, Betty uses her legs to start pushing him down.

“Are you going to look at me while you come on my face, Elizabeth?”

“Yes,” she tells him in a low voice.  

“Do you promise?” Jughead is kissing his way down her stomach as he pulls her shirt up until she can grab it and pull it over her head, tossing it to the floor. Once he feels a foot on his shoulder, he turns his head to kiss the inside of her thigh, a slight pressure trying to move him making him almost laugh. “You’re so bossy, baby, you know that?”

“Nuh-uh,” is all she gets out before he smacks the outside of her thigh in a reprimand.

“I asked you a question,” he reminds her, settling between her legs, putting one after the other over his shoulders before he works his hands under her ass, thumbs settling into the crease at the back of her thighs. Holding her in place, just barely elevated off the bed, he looks up at her over the contours of her stomach and breasts. Suddenly he laments he bypassed giving them the attention they deserve on his way down but he’ll make it up to them later, he tells himself.

“What?” is the only thing she gets out as he’s staring at her, making her flushed and flustered.

“I said, do you promise to look at me while you come on my face?”

A small nod is all he gets and he raises an eyebrow at her. “I can’t hear you.”

“I promise.”

“There we go,” is all he says before leaning down, still looking at her as he flicks his tongue against her clit. Her hips jump at the contact but he goes up with her, knowing how she moves after all these years together. Still looking at her, he moves to nip the inside of her thigh when she looks away as he hit a spot he knows she likes.

“Sorry,” she murmurs, her eyes going back to his face.

“There she is. Let me see those eyes.”

With his tongue back to putting pressure on her clit, he moves his hands to get a better grip on the backs of her legs, pushing her a bit higher until her feet land on his shoulder blades, the curling of her toes into his skin making him shiver.

He can tell she’s struggling to keep her eyes open and he takes advantage of that fact when he slides his tongue through her folds, letting the tip of it tease at her entrance. Betty’s eyes roll back when he does that, the loud moan coming from her mouth bouncing off the walls in the bedroom. He does it again. And again. Just once more before he takes his hands from underneath her, letting her hips fall to the mattress, slipping two fingers into her as his tongue slides up, the combination making her back arch.

“Elizabeth,” he says, stopping and pulling back from her. “I think I want to feel you come while I’m buried inside of you instead. Would you like that?”

Betty’s eyes are almost wild when she manages to look at him and give him a barely perceptible nod. Her hair is messy from her hands running through it, the moonlight hitting across her body as he follows the lines of her body up to her face.

“Look at you,” he starts, climbing up to his knees and crawling over her. “Beautiful and fierce. And so, so eager to please.”

Sitting back on his knees, he pulls her legs up and lets them rest over his thighs. Running his hands along them, he smiles down at her. “Aren’t you?”

The coy smirk that overcomes her face makes his stomach clench in anticipation.

“Am I what?” she asks, her hands stretching out over her head, making the lines of her body taut.

“Oh, I see, you’re talking back now. You know what I asked you.”

“Yes, Jug.”

“Yes, what?”

“Yes, I’m eager to please.”

“Eager to please who?” he questions before patting her leg as a signal to move, she looks at him as she lets her legs fall to the side and off of his legs. Twirling a finger, he motions for her to turn over.

“You. Always, always you,” she tells him as she gets up on her knees, facing him and placing a series of soft kisses across his chest. He cups her face as she pulls back and leans in to kiss her.

“My girl, knowing what I need to hear. Do you know how happy you make me?” Brushing a thumb across her cheek, he applies just enough pressure to make her meet his eyes. “Hmm?”

“So happy,” she states in a soft whisper, a smile flitting over her face.

“That’s right. So, _so_ happy.”

Waiting until she’s on her knees, her face buried into the pillow, he runs his hands up her back, making her shudder and break out in goosebumps before he gives her ass one _almost_ sharp slap. Just one and just hard enough to get her attention.  

“Up,” he commands, putting a hand into her hair, tugging on it as she moves up and onto her knees. “Come on, now, you know what I want.”

Betty looks over her shoulder at him as she shuffles back, putting herself into his lap, her back to his chest with her legs straddling his thighs. Leaning into him, her arms reach behind her head to grab onto the back of his neck. Hands on her hips he adjusts her up and back until he can sit her down on him, sliding her wet heat around him.

Her gasp is magnified when he raises his right hand to gently hold onto her throat, his left cupping her breast, a thumb caressing her nipple. He uses his leverage to move her up and down on him, her head falling back letting out little whimpers with each thrust.

Taking her earlobe between his teeth, he lightly nips her. “You like this, don’t you?”

She’s mumbling her easy agreement, each thrust punctuated with a whispered _yes, yes, yes._

“You’re so pretty like this, did you know that?” he questions. Placing a sucking kiss onto the curve of her neck, he doesn’t hear her answer but he doesn’t need to. “Did you want to come?”

Her unfocused agreements have taken up a steady pace, only breaking when she says his name.

“What was that?”

“Yes,” she whines out, her hands tightening into his hair as she lifts herself and comes down harder with each bounce. _“Please.”_

He slightly increases the pressure around her throat, holding her in place. “There’s my sweet girl, always so polite. If you want to come then what should you do?”

“Turn around,” she whispers in a breathy voice.

“Why?”

“Because you want to see my face when I come.”

“Look at my girl, knowing what I want, like always.” Jughead puts his hands on her hips, pushing her slowly off of him, steadying her on wobbling knees as she turns to let herself fall on her back, meeting his eyes as soon as she lands. “There we go. That’s what I want to see.”

Crawling back over her, he grabs the back of her knees, wrapping her legs around his waist. Resting on his forearms, he kisses her deeply as he slides into her again, making sure he rubs against her clit with each stroke. Pushing himself onto his hands, he speeds up until he can feel her tightening around him.

Betty’s whimpering moans leave their mark on him, the heat building low in his abdomen as he feels her fall over the edge, staring at her face the whole time. Her fingers are pushing his hair up and off of his forehead and when he comes, he comes with a murmured _oh fuck_ and a whispered, _I love you so much_ before letting some of weight press against her.

He’s not sure how long he’s rested against her when he rolls off and to the side, pulling her with him, his arms wrapping around her tightly, one hand running through her hair. “Are you good?”

She hums out a yes, her eyes falling closed in relaxation, whispering a quiet, “Love you.”

Pressing a kiss to the top of her head returns the sentiment before leaning further back into the pillows, the soft weight of a sleeping Betty against him calming the stormy thoughts that had started to surface since he found his wife crying in their bed over the pressure of trying to make everything better for his father, and to extent, him. Sighing quietly to himself, he knows what he needs to do.

It was time to go see his father.

 

* * *

 

He hesitates when his hand rests on the knob of the door that will lead him to see his dad for the first time in well over a year. The trepidation he’s felt since he decided to come see him last night comes back in full force as he walks through and catches his dad’s eyes through the bars of his holding cell.

“Hey, Jug,” FP says, a tired smile coming across his face. “It’s been too long.”

“Dad,” he responds stiffly, hands now shoved in his pockets. “How are you?”

“As well as a murderer can be,” FP jokes, his smile falling as he sees Jughead’s reaction. “Jug-”

“No, Dad. No.” Walking closer, he glares at him. “You need to work with Betty, you’re making her life so much harder than it has to be. She swears you didn’t do it and you know what happens when Betty thinks there’s some sort of injustice going on.”

“I do,” his dad answers.

“So why, then, are you doing this to her?”

“I’m not trying to do anything to her, Jughead.”

“My wife is crying herself to sleep, did you know that? She’s stressed and crying and I’ve got Veronica Lodge ready to take a hit out on me because of Betty’s anxiety levels. And the thing is-” he chokes on his words, trying to keep control of his temper and his emotions, “-the thing is, _she_ insisted we come home for this.”

“Jug-”

“No! Listen to me, I know you didn’t do this. I joined the Serpents, Dad. Did you know that? Where do you think these bruises came from?” he says, gesturing to the yellowing purpled bruises still lingering on his cheek and jaw. “

“Dammit, Jughead!” FP shouts, slamming his hand against the bars. “Why?”

“You know, they all think it’s for you,” he informs him. “They think I want some sort of revenge for you being in here, but they’re wrong.”

FP is staring at Jughead, eyes hard.

Looking at the ground, he takes a deep breath, trying not to feel fifteen again under the glare of his father. Thinking of Betty crying alone in their bed before he got home anchors his resolve. “I don’t think you did it, you know? I think you’re taking the fall for some reason that I don’t know about yet but this? Me joining the Serpents? It’s not about you. The only reason I’m here, the only reason I’m trying at all, is for Betty.”

“You joined the Serpents for Betty?” his dad scoffs, shaking his head. “That was a dumb move, boy.”

“My wife, I think you know her, the woman defending you pro bono and working her ass off, took a leave of absence and came back to this town to live in a trailer on the Southside. You know why she willingly put a target on her back? For you. So, if that means I join the Serpents or if I have to take a beating every week to keep her safe then that’s what I’ll do.”

“You willing to get yourself killed to keep Betty safe?”

“Yes,” Jughead answers immediately. “If the only thing I ever do is make sure she’s safe, then my life will have had some sort of meaning.”

“That girl ain’t glass, Jug. Does she know you think the world is out to get her?”

“More than anyone else,” he informs FP. “I may want to protect Betty from the world, Dad, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think she can’t conquer it.” Sighing loudly as he looks up at the ceiling, Jughead crosses his arms. “You’ve been lying to me my whole life. If not for me or Jellybean, or even Mom, for once in your life can you please just tell the truth?”

“It’s not that simple, Jughead.”

“It really is, actually. Don’t admit to murders you didn’t commit.”

FP runs a hand through his hair, frustrated. “Listen to me. I know you like to stick your nose where it doesn’t belong but you need to let this one go.”

“Someone died!” Jughead almost shouts. “This isn’t a fire or blackmail or something that can be swept under the rug with enough effort. A person, a person Betty and I _knew,_ is dead. Gone. And you didn’t do it. So now I need to find out who did.”

“Leave it alone, Jug-”

“Tell me, Dad, if you were here the night of the murder you supposedly committed, I’d like to know how you were also at my book signing about six hours away from here.”

FP takes a sharp step back, surprised, before his shoulders slump. “Fred, I assume.”

“Yeah, Fred. So, let’s try it again. Dad, what do you know about Midge Klump’s murder?”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god, I killed Midge. 
> 
> Hah. Not really, she already dead. Well, in canon. Poor Midge. 
> 
> So, this was my first real foray into a few of the dirtier aspects of the smutty naughty fun times. Mostly, the dirty talking. Like, it might just be me, but man, I really think Jughead just has got to have a filthy mouth. 
> 
> And he finally confronted FP! Woohoo, Jughead, get on with your bad self! We're all proud of you. 
> 
> But uh, watch your back. V Lodge is out to get you, probably. She's pretty feisty. I wouldn't cross her. 
> 
> So, come gather round and tell me what you thought, it both soothes my soul and feeds my motivation. Unless, of course, cookies are feeding me. You know what? Both. I want both please and thank you. 
> 
> BESOS TO YOU ALL, I LOVE ALL OF YOU! Like, I would step on a Lego for you guys. Barefoot. I don't think the love gets more real than that. 
> 
> Come [tumble](https://thetaoofbetty.tumblr.com/) with me if you want.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you know that if you have one of those stoves with the boiler burner thingy and you're like man, I really want to roast a marshmallow right now but also there's no other fire, that you probably shouldn't use the super high powered burner to do so? 
> 
> No? 
> 
> Well, believe me when I say it's a bad idea. 
> 
>  
> 
> [The more you know...](https://media3.giphy.com/media/MiafwS4zj10Os/giphy.gif)
> 
>  
> 
> Super sorry about shitty editing, but also you don't own me, if I want 2,000 commas I'll do what I want. 
> 
> READ ON, LITTLE ELVES!

“I’m sorry, Jughead.”

Head snapping up, he sees a contrite Veronica Lodge looking at him before gesturing to the other side of the Pop’s booth he’s sitting in.

“May I?”

A sharp nod from him has her slipping into the seat across from him. “What’s up, Veronica?”

“It’s been brought to my attention that I may have been too hard on you,” she tells him with a sniff, looking at some point past his shoulder.

“So, Betty or Archie told you to apologize, I assume?”

Veronica glares at him. “I am capable of self-reflection, you know, but yes, it was Betty who asked me not to make things any worse than they already are.”

“You know,” he begins, leaning back against the booth as he crosses his arms, “I’m not sure you’ve ever actually given me an apology that wasn’t prompted by someone else in the entire time we’ve known each other.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.”

Jughead shrugs. “Possibly but can you think of one?”

Veronica’s gaze is hard as she looks out the window of Pop’s. “No.”

“Why is that do you think?”

Narrowed eyes swing his way as she purses her lips, contemplating him. “When I moved to Riverdale, I had told myself it was time to start over. To stop being the Cheryl Blossom of my school in New York.” Fidgeting with the string of pearls around her neck, she looks away before continuing. “I met Betty that first day, do you remember?”

Jughead nods at her.

“I expected a snotty girl with a bad attitude but I got Betty Cooper. I feel like you know what that’s like.”

“I do.”

“I knew you loved her, you know? Right away. I got it, Jughead. I really understood it. There are some people on this earth that are just meant to make you a better person and I think Betty’s that for the both of us.”

“Veronica-”

“No,” she interrupts, shaking her head at him, “listen to me, okay? I’ve always thought you and Betty were soulmates. Always. But I think she’s mine too, not in the same way she’s yours, so don’t give me that look.” She takes a deep breath and starts drumming her fingers on the table top. “Maybe soulmate is the wrong word? More like soul-keeper. I know that I can always count on her. To be there, to keep my secrets, to be the things I can’t be when all I want to do is rage at the world. Betty was the first person to show me that friendship doesn’t need strings attached to it and I-”

“Don’t know what you’d do without her in your life?” Jughead finishes for her.

“Yeah,” she responds. “I’m protective of it. After my dad...it wasn’t great and Betty was there for me through it all.”

“I get it, Veronica, I do.” Jughead rolls his shoulders before leaning forward. “I’m not going to let anything happen to her.”

“You know how she is, Jughead. If she decides to go after something, she’s going to do it no matter what you or I or even Archie thinks.”

“Betty and I have talked about it. She knows the risks and she’s promised not to go running into danger like she has in the past.”

Veronica scoffs at him. “She’s got you wrapped around her finger, Jughead. What makes you think she’ll actually listen to you?”

Relaxing back against the familiar vinyl seat, he tilts his head back for a moment before looking back at her. “Because she knows I need her to this time.” 

 

* * *

 

“I can’t believe you let him join the Serpents,” FP tells her, frowning and leaning back into his chair.

Stuck once again in the small room in the Sheriff’s station with its two chairs, one table, and too bright glow of the lights, Betty wishes she was still in bed. “You really think I  _let_ him? Do you even know him at all?”

“Come on, Betty, you know you’ve had a grip on everything that boy’s done his whole life,” FP scoffs at her.

Betty stiffens. “I know, FP, that you’ve had a hard couple of months. And I know that Jughead’s choices might disappoint you but if you could crawl out of your own ass you might realize that your choices are having a profound effect on your  _only_ son.” Taking a deep breath, she steadies her hands against the table. “If the idea that your son, who by the way is my husband by choice  _not_ coercion, is a college graduate as well as a successful author who is also happily married to his high school girlfriend is a disappointment to you, then I implore you to look at your own life and choices and ask yourself how he feels about  _yours._ ”

FP crosses his arms, sitting back into his chair, considering her with intense eyes. “Why are you here, Betty?”

“You can keep asking me that, you know, but the answer is always going to be the same. I’m not my mother, FP, stop looking for an ulterior motive.”

Letting out a breath, he runs his hands through his hair in a move that reminds her so much of Jughead she wants go find her husband, pack their bags, and go far away until they forget the hold this town has on them all.

Closing her eyes for a second before staring hard at him, she grips the folders she’d brought with her, bending the edges then smoothing them as she considers her next words. “You are wasting my time. This whole farce is a waste of time, money, and resources, did you know that?”  

“Betty-”

“No,” she tells him firmly, cutting him off. “I took time off work, I made Jughead come here. This is on me. He didn’t want to, you know? He told me you’d make my life difficult, you’d be stubborn and argumentative. But I pushed it. Then I found out you were at his book signing and I thought you’d try and stay out of prison for your son. Because that’s the thing, I know you love Jughead.”

FP leans forward, elbows on the table, his chin resting on intertwined fingers as he narrows his eyes at her. “What are you saying?”

“Did you know Cheryl Blossom likes to talk when she’s been drinking?”

His eyes widen for a fraction of a second before he closes his emotions off.

“So, I had assumed that you loved your son more than anyone else in the world to try and give him the life you wanted for him. And I was willing to do anything to fix his image of you for him. I still am.” Picking up the folders and standing, she smoothes her skirt with one hand before grabbing her bag that’s been hanging off the back of the chair. “The book store was happy to send me the security footage of you that night, FP. I wanted you to fight for yourself, for your son, but you seem hellbent on taking us all down with you and I won’t allow that to happen.”

“Betty, don’t do this-”

“You’ll be out in 24 hours or less,” she says crisply, walking out of the door as he calls her name, the desperation in his tone evident.

She stops right before closing the door, grasping the knob in her hands tightly. “If you want to be guilty of a crime so badly, making false statements to police is a punishable offense but I can’t promise Sheriff Keller won’t release you purely out of spite at this point.”

 

* * *

 

“You did what?” he asks, shocked.

“I can’t let him do this to either of us, Jug. Or even himself,” Betty responds, hands fidgeting in anxiety. “I brought us here and I can’t let him keep stringing us both along.”

Standing with his hip propped against the counter in the trailer’s kitchen he takes in her face. Tired eyes. A frown pulling on the plush lips of her mouth. The frizzed edges of her hair where she’d not been able to keep her hands out of it while stressed out.

“Is this the best thing for us, Betty?”

She gazes at him with a forlorn expression. “Us? Yes, I think so. Him? I don’t know.”

He hates the guilt he sees on her face. Reaching out and pulling her into his arms, he hugs her tightly to him, his chin resting on the top of her head. “His choices aren’t our fault, okay?”

Betty laughs into his shirt. “It’s like you heard that somewhere before or something.”

“I did,” he tells her, pressing a kiss to her temple. “By this bossy blonde I know. Man, she had legs for days, though. Should have got her number.”

“Bossy?” she asks, leaning back and narrowing her eyes at him.

“That’s what you got out what I said?”

Betty shrugs. “Veronica is bossy. Are you saying I’m like Veronica?”

Jughead smiles in amusement. “You assume you’re the blonde?”

“Jug,” she says seriously, “do you remember what happened a few weeks ago?”

He winces. Pretty sure he knows what she’s referring to he just nods.

“And what happened?”

Sighing Jughead lets his shoulders fall. “I got yelled at by a woman who thought I’d been objectifying her.”

Betty is trying to stifle her smile. “Then what?”

“I made it worse by telling her that I hadn’t noticed what she looked like, I was just looking at her shoes because I’d like to objectify my wife in them.”

“And then?”

“She noticed you behind me, laughing, told you where she got the shoes, and wished me luck,” Jughead mutters to her. He’d been so embarrassed at the time. “But I was right, your legs look amazing in those stupid shoes.”

Betty just raises an eyebrow at him.

“Fine, you’re the bossy blonde. Are you happy?”

Smiling, she laughs and hugs him tighter. “For the moment, sure.”

Faking offense, Jughead gasps. “The moment?”

“Ask me again after I have to listen to you rant about another movie or book for forty-five minutes.”

Rolling his eyes, he steps out of her grip. “I’m offended.”

“No you’re not,” she tells him, walking around him to open the fridge. “Now what do you want for dinner?”

Eyeing her backside bent over as she looked through the food they’d recently bought he opens his mouth to reply when she speaks before he gets a chance.

“Don’t say it, Jug.”

“Say what?” he asks innocently, still staring at her ass.

“If you say you want me for dinner, I will go eat at Pop’s and you won’t be invited.”

Jughead bites his lip, thinking of a comeback when he thinks of something else. “Betts, where’s my dad gonna stay when he gets out?” 

Standing up, she turns to look at him with a sheepish expression. “About that…”

 

* * *

 

“You want me to what?” Fred asks, staring at both of them.

Jughead slouches back into the Andrews’ sofa before repeating himself. “Betty is making sure Dad gets out and we either need to stay with you until it’s resolved or we need you to let him stay here. I don’t think we can coexist in the trailer right now.”

“What about Veronica?” Archie asks, adjusting the guitar on his lap, strumming it quietly. “Pretty sure she’d help you pack.”

Groaning, Jughead settles further into the cushions next to Betty. “Veronica? Really? You know how we get when we spend too much time together.”

Archie just shrugs at him.

“Jug, you know this is your home, always has been, of course you and Betty come stay here,” Fred says, rubbing a hand on his chin before continuing. “But maybe FP should stay here and out of the Southside for a while.”

“What?” Archie asks, furrowing his eyebrows at his dad.

Fred sighs, running a hand through his hair. “FP has always been good at finding trouble or trouble finding him, it’ll be better if he’s here where I can keep an eye on him.”

“Thanks, Fred,” Jughead says, giving him a grateful smile.

“Just let me know when he’s being released and I’ll be there to pick him up.”

 

* * *

 

“So, Jonesy, I’ve got a job for you,” Tall Boy tells him as he sits down next to Monty at the Whyte Wyrm later that night.

Fighting the urge to roll his eyes, he gazes over to Tall Boy. “And what’s that?”

“We need something delivered and the newest recruits always do the deliveries.”

“Deliveries of what?”

“That’s classified,” Tall Boy informs him, propping his foot on top of the table as he leans back into the wooden chair.

Jughead scoffs at him. “Classified? Really?”

“Yeah, no questions, Jones, that’s the rule.”

“Good lord,” he mutters under his breath. Thinking about Betty’s reaction to him being volunteered to move “something” to who knows where he hesitates. “You do know my wife is a lawyer, right?”

“Sure do,” Tall Boy says happily as Monty groans and shakes his head.

Monty, leaning forward across the table to speak lowly to Jughead tells him, “It’s a rite of passage, Jug. It is what it is, tell your girl if you need to so she can be prepared if it goes sideways but it’s I can’t get you out of it, alright?”

Nodding at him in resignation, Jughead takes a deep breath. “When?”

“We’ll let you know,” Monty murmurs to him as he sees people headed their way.

Jughead just blows out a breath and lets his shoulders fall. He knows the Serpents have something to do with his dad admitting to a murder he didn’t commit and he knows he’s got to play his part but he can’t imagine how Betty might react if he gets arrested for something trying to solve a mystery that he’s got no real leads for. And he’s almost certain his editor would be be pissed off if she had to smooth over an arrest record on his next book tour.

 _Maybe, if it happens, I can sell it as research for my next book,_ he thinks, almost laughing at trying to pass that idea off to his no nonsense editor.

His face must look amused when he hears the almost always grating voice of Sweet Pea.

“Something funny, Jones?”

Closing his eyes tightly for just a second he centers himself before moving to face the other Serpent. “If I say your face, would that make me cliche?”

“What?”

“That’s what I thought,” Jughead says, reaching for his water glass, taking a sip before setting it back down and narrowing his eyes at Sweet Pea.

“Wife got your balls so wound tight you can’t even have a drink? Or are you one of those guys who needs to pair his leathers with the perfect red wine?”

Jughead laughs at that, shaking his head while spinning the condensation the glass had left on the scarred wooden table with his finger. “Do I look like I drink wine? Of any kind?”

Sweet Pea just shrugs as Monty rolled his eyes at him and Tall Boy looks on amused.

“Did you know that kids of alcoholics are something like three or four times more likely to abuse alcohol themselves if they have an alcoholic parent?”

“So?”

“So, Sweet Pea,” Jughead says plainly, “I’d prefer not to take that chance when my life, you know the one where I’m the one with the gorgeous wife in my bed while you go home alone? Yeah, I’d rather not fuck that up, thanks.”

Monty snorts into his beer and Sweet Pea glares at him, raising an eyebrow and leaning forward across the table but what he starts to say gets lost as Tall Boy sits up and interrupts.

“Hey, two o’clock, boy.”

Both Jughead and Sweet Pea turn their heads to see Betty headed their way. He thinks he can almost hear Sweet Pea swallowing at the sight of his wife in tight dark jeans tucked into knee high boots made for the colder weather and a light blue sweater that might be mocking him by falling off of one shoulder. Her blonde hair is down and wavy, framing her face as she smiles when she spots him, walking a bit faster to reach him.

Standing before she gets to him, he wraps an arm around her shoulders, kissing her forehead before whispering in her ear, “What are you doing here?”

Betty gives him a smile, her own arm circling around his back as she tilts her head up to talk to him. “You don’t always have to be here alone, Jug.”

He takes a deep breath. Not wanting Betty in the bar but not wanting to give anyone a reason to gossip, he just smiles a tight smile at her and sits back down, pulling her onto his lap and settling his hands on her hips, sliding his thumbs through the belt loops along her waistband.

“Monty, you remember my wife, Betty,” Jughead says. “Tall Boy, Sweet Pea, I’m sure you do as well.”

Tall Boy tips his glass towards her in acknowledgment and Sweet Pea is seemingly torn between glaring at Jughead and staring at Betty. If it was so irritating, he’d laugh at the situation. He remembers one of the first times they’d gone out to a bar in college and some dudebro frat house reject tried hitting on her right in front of him.

 **_May_** **_2021_ **

_Jughead is walking back to where he’d left Betty to go get their drinks when he spots some random guy sliding into the seat he’d vacated only a few minutes previously. Eyebrows raised, he keeps walking, standing behind Betty as she smiles politely at the moron who probably can’t tell his right from his left._

_Betty has her chin propped up on one of her hands as she feigns interest in whatever he’s saying, nodding every now and then, too nice to tell him to get lost. He barely keeps in an amused laugh at what he hears the guy say to her as he sets her drink down next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder as one of her hands come up to intertwine with his as she sits up straight._

_“Do you have a name?” the guy asks, “Or should I just give you mine?”_

_Betty snorts at the stupidity of the pick up line, leaning back into her chair. The idiot finally registers Jughead’s presence as he leans forward to inform him, “Good effort but seeing as I already gave her my name, I think you need to get out of my seat and stop hitting on my wife.”_

_Startled, the guy stutters some excuse and almost knocks the chair over in his haste to get away from them. Betty, laughing, picks up her drink and takes the straw between her teeth as she smiles at him as he sits back in his chair._

_“Really?”_

_“Mmhmm,” he tells her, taking a drink of his own, his hand resting high up on her thigh, fingers tracing circles on her inner leg as he stares at her. “You know you don’t have to be nice about guys like that, right? You can tell them to fuck off.”_

_Betty shrugs at him, setting her drink down. “One day it might be someone just being nice, you know.”_

_“Baby,” he says, rolling his eyes at her, “a guy wearing a sports jersey in a bar on a weekend looking to talk to pretty women who are sitting alone is not trying to find a friend.”_

_“Jug-”_

_“Okay, I concede that Archie doing it is believable but that’s it. They want in your pants and do you know why?” he questions, his hand slipping further up her thigh. Her breath catches and he smirks at her. “Because you, Betty, are beautiful and eminently fuckable.”_

_“Been reading that thesaurus again?” she asks him with a raised brow._

_Tugging her chair closer to his, he puts a hand on the back of her neck leading her face close to his. “Is it working for you?”_

_“Say another one.”_

_“Your fuckability is astounding, Elizabeth,” he whispers in her ear before moving back to her mouth, pressing his lips against her, the little moan she lets loose making him grip her tighter as he nips her lower lip._

_Betty’s hands grab his knees as she moves herself off of her own chair and onto his lap. Breaking the kiss, the warm heat of her breath on his ear sends a shiver down his spine as she tells him, “Did you know the bathroom in this place has a locking door?”_

_“Does it now?”_

_“It does,” she says with a smile, standing and pulling him up by the hand leading him toward the back of the bar._

Betty, shaking with laughter at something Monty has said to her breaks him out of his thoughts and he leans up, settling his chin on her shoulder to see what he’d missed while lost in his memories.

Before he can involve himself in the conversation, he sees both Monty and Tall Boy tense and Jughead twists his head to see what they’re staring at.

 _Shit,_  he thinks. He sees the Ghoulie jacket before anything else and he almost wants to groan out loud as he becomes very aware that Betty is here with him because of course that’s his luck. Slipping his hands off of her hips, he pats the side of her thigh, signaling her to let him up and he stands with the rest of the Serpents at the table while placing himself mostly in front of Betty.

“What are you doing here, Malachi?” Tall Boy demands, his irritation plain on his face.

“A little bird told me that a little blonde sprung FP from jail,” Malachai states, spreading his hands out in a placating manner. “I just wanted to confirm the rumor for myself.”

“Do you see FP here?” Monty asks.

Malachai narrows his eyes at Jughead before smiling at the sight of Betty behind him. “Is this her? Because-”

“Hey,” Jughead interrupts, “you don’t talk  _to_ or  _about_ her, is that clear?”

“You Serpents are never any fun,” Malachai says, rolling his shoulders back. “I’m not here to start a fight, I just wanted to see if my little bird was lying or not.”

“Why does it matter?” Sweet Pea interjects, a scowl on his face as he crosses his arms across his chest.

“If I said I just wanted to know, would you believe me?”

Jughead scoffs at that. The Ghoulies, he decides, are definitely involved in what his dad is trying to keep quiet.

“Has anyone ever told you that you look just like FP?” Malachai asks him, a smirk twisting his features into something temptingly punchable. “You can tell your pops that Penny Peabody wants to talk to him.”

“Yeah, I’ll be real sure to pass that along,” Jughead replies with sarcasm. The tension in the room amps up as Malachi steps up to him and he pushes Betty further behind him as a reflex before facing the Ghoulie.

“Your girl, Jones, she just made a mess of things. You might want to keep her close, you know, just in case,” he whispers to him, making Jughead stiffen at the threat.

“Stay away from my family,” he warns. “I’m only going to tell you once.”

Laughing, Malachai slaps a hand on Jughead’s shoulder. “Watch your back, Jones.”

With those last words, he turns and walks back of the Whyte Wyrm, leaving the Serpents standing still and agitated.

The murmurs floating across the bar are like buzzing as he spins to stare into Betty’s eyes, his control close to being snapped as Malachai’s threat plays on loop in his mind.

“Come on,” he commands, taking her by the hand and leading her down the hallway with nothing more than a nod of acknowledgment to Monty as they walk by.

Pushing a door that looks like it belongs to a bathroom open, he tugs her through it before pushing it closed and flipping the deadbolt, effectively locking them in.

“Jug,” Betty starts, “what are you-”

Taking her face in his hands he kisses her with a quiet intensity, making her melt against him as she lets him slip his tongue against hers, her hands scrambling for purchase on the leather of his jacket at his shoulders.

Breathing heavily by the time they break apart, he tells her, “You are not going anywhere alone anymore, okay?”

“What? Why?”

Eyebrows raised at the question he backs her up into the edge of the sink. “There are very few things I don’t think I could live without, Betty, and you? You are at the top of the list. So I don’t want you going anywhere alone right now.”

“Do you know who Penny Peabody is?”

Shaking his head, he starts tugging at the button of her jeans. “Nope. I will find out though.”

“What’re doing?” she asks breathlessly, her hands holding onto the countertop as she looks at him confused.

“I,” he says, “just really need to fuck you right now.”

“In a bathroom?”

Jughead smirks. “We’ve done it before.”

Betty’s eyes turn predatory and she reaches for his own jeans, popping the button and pulling on the zipper. “I don’t want a faucet poking me in the ass this time.”

“Don’t worry,” he says, turning her around as he works her tight jeans over her hips and down to her thighs, “I want you to watch me fuck you this time.”

The mirror is probably as old as the bar itself but not even the slight distortion of it can make Betty look anything other than beautiful. Putting a hand between her shoulders he gives her a little shove to bend her over the sink, her arms going straight, palms flat against the glass as she looks at him over her shoulder.

“I want you to look at yourself, Elizabeth,” he demands. “I want you to see how pretty you are when I’m making you come.”

A lowly exhaled yes makes him harder as he slips a hand between her legs, finding her already wet for him.

He leans forward and groans into the skin of her neck, pressing a kiss there before meeting her eyes in the mirror. “You’re so good for me.”

The barely there nod from Betty tells him what he needs to know as he takes himself in hand and slides into her in one smooth movement.

Her moan and flexing fingers on the mirror make him smile as he stares at her, hips slapping into the smooth skin of her ass. Running a hand up her back, he circles long fingers around the delicate flesh of her throat, gripping just enough to make her breath catch.

“So pretty, aren’t you?”

Staring back at him with half lidded eyes, her panting getting louder in the quiet of the room, he slips his free hand around her front and down to her clit, the small circles making her thighs tremble as he keeps a steady pace, driving in and out of her.

“Are you going to come, pretty girl?” he asks, his fingers speeding up.

He gets nothing but an incoherent sound in response.

Slowing his hand, he all but pulls out of her. “Elizabeth.”

Her eyes go wide, meeting his again in the mirror. “Jug, please-”

“Not until you tell me what I want to hear.” The fingers that are wrapped around her neck start stroking her skin as he waits.

“Yes,” she murmurs, “I’m going to come.”

“See how easy that was?” Resuming his movements, he starts rolling her clit between his fingers gently, sending whole body shivers through her as she closes her eyes. “Open your eyes like the good girl I know you are.”

He can see her eyes open, staring at herself in the mirror like he asked and speeds his pace up, making her moan with each thrust as he watches her reach and then fall over the edge, her body trembling as her orgasm triggers his, the wet heat of her causing a low groan to fall out of his mouth. Pulling her up as he works them both through the aftermath, he releases her neck and slips his hand out from between her legs, circling them around her and kissing her temple, then her cheek as she smiles at him, sated, in the mirror. 

“I love you, Betty,” he whispers, “And there’s nothing I won’t do to keep you safe.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, as it turns out, I'm basically made of apple pie, stuffing, and other assorted leftovers until further notice so honestly, no one trust me. 
> 
> You know, plot and stuff is happening. Look at that mess up there, causing drama. Causing smut. Causing chaos. 
> 
> Oh my god, speaking of the word chaos, I was once standing behind someone who was on the phone talking about which movie they wanted to rent, right? And I SWEAR ON MY PAJAMAS the lady on the phone said, "What about Chaos?" 
> 
> Which, uh, who cares, lady, lame movie sure, but judgment for it? 
> 
> BUT WAIT SHE SAYS, THERE'S MORE! The woman on the phone pronounced it "Chowse." Like Taos but with a ch sound. 
> 
> I could have died holding that laugh in, okay? I think I broke a blood vessel. 
> 
> Now, you're gonna think about that the next time you see the word chaos. You're welcome.
> 
> ANYWAY, the plot, she's a moving! Woohoo! I love and adore you all and your comments, they do things to me. Not dirty things, I promise. 
> 
> Well, not explicitly dirty things. Soft core dirty. 
> 
> BESOS TO YOU AND YOURS! And also me. You know, for reasons. 
> 
> As always, you can come [tumble](https://thetaoofbetty.tumblr.com/) with me if you want.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god, I did it? The three of you who read this are probably shocked af but I did it. 
> 
> I updated. Someone get the doves, it's gonna be a thing. 
> 
> Anyways, read on, lovelies, read on!

“Do you think your dad is going to need more than this bag?” Betty asks, holding up the duffel she’d packed for FP that morning. 

Jughead shrugs while eating his cereal, making Betty roll her eyes at him as she sets it on the floor by the front door. 

“What did you put in it?” 

Taking a seat next to him at the small kitchen table, she reaches for his cereal bowl, sliding it over and taking a bite before answering. 

“Clothes, his toothbrush. Sort of weird touching your dad’s boxers, I have to say.” 

“You touched my dad’s underwear?” 

“I didn’t see you packing his stuff up,” she answers with a look. “I gave him your shampoo and soap since his stuff looked pretty old.” 

“Betts-”

“Don’t whine at me about it, just go get some new stuff later, okay?” she interrupts, starting to eat the rest of his cereal. 

“You’re really not going to give that back, are you?” 

“I had to touch your dad’s underwear, I figure you owe me.” 

“That’s fair,” he concedes, leaning his elbows on the table, watching her eat. “You okay?” 

“Just tired,” Betty says, between bites. “It’s been a long couple weeks.” 

“It’ll get better,” he promises, reaching out and settling a hand on the curve of her neck, giving her a soft squeeze, kissing her on the cheek before taking the bowl to the sink for her. “What’s today’s pla-” 

He’s cut off by the front door swinging open and the telltale click of expensive heels on the linoleum. 

“Jones,” Veronica says, stopping when she sees him. 

“Lodge,” he replies, turning back around to rinse out the bowl he’d had in his hand. “To what do we owe the pleasure of your presence?” 

“I’m kidnapping your wife.” 

Jughead nods. “I knew this day was coming. If you’re asking for ransom, I’ve been building a savings account just in cas-” 

“Jug!” Betty exclaims, laughing. 

“Does anyone besides Betty think you’re funny?” Veronica asks, popping out a hip as she stares him down. 

“My book sales indicate that people in the eighteen to thirty-four demographic find me delightful,” Jughead deadpans, wiping his hands off on the soft cotton towel next to the sink before turning around to face her. “So, you’re stealing my wife?” 

“Yup.” 

“To do nefarious misdeeds or what?” 

“I’m taking her to a spa, Jughead,” Veronica snarks, rolling her eyes at him. 

Crossing his arms, he leans back against the counter, considering how to let her know he’s grateful without actually saying the words. 

“A spa? For what? Massages?” 

“Mmhmm,” Veronica hums out, looking down at her nails. “By big beefy male masseurs. We might run away with them-” 

“Veronica,” Betty cuts in, sounding far too amused. “Be nice.” 

“Fine,” she laments. “Your wife looks tired, Jones, and I intend to fix that.” 

“She looks beautiful,” he snaps back, taking a quick peek at Betty. She does look tired but she’s just as beautiful to him as she’s ever been and he doesn’t need Veronica making her feel bad about herself. 

“I didn’t say she wasn’t beautiful, of course she is, and far too good for you, have I told you that lately? But she also looks tired and I think she could use some stress relief now that your dad is out of jail.” 

“Jug,” Betty says softly, reaching out her hand to him, “are you sure you don’t want me there with you?” 

Taking her hand in his, he kisses her wrist and slips his fingers between hers. “I’ll be fine, I promise. Go to whatever absurdly priced spa-” 

“Hey!” Veronica interjects from the background. 

“-that Veronica wants to take you to and have a day to yourselves, you deserve it. Just no running away with any male masseurs, okay?” 

“I promise,” Betty swears, smiling up at him. “I’m not sure about Veronica though.” 

“Men are useless to me right now, B, unless I need them for heavy lifting,” Veronica says, tapping her foot and looking at her watch. “Come on, we have appointments to get to.” 

Jughead barely gets to kiss his wife goodbye before Veronica drags her out the door and into the black town car, leaving him behind as he stands in the kitchen, running a hand through his hair in apprehension while he stares at the bag Betty had packed. 

Breathing in and trying to release the tension, he grabs the bag and his keys, heading out to pick up his dad from jail. 

 

* * *

 

“You’re staying with Fred for the foreseeable future,” Jughead informs FP, gesturing for him to get into the car. 

“Excuse me?” 

“You heard me.” Jughead is clenching his jaw. “You’re not going back to the trailer. The Southside isn’t safe for you apparently and Fred offered you their spare room until we can get all of this figured out.” 

“Jughead-” 

“No,” he says, cutting FP off. “Listen, I won’t have you stressing Betty out further. She doesn’t want you alone on the Southside and I don’t want to end up part of a double homicide because I tried to cohabitate with Veronica Lodge, so Fred Andrews is saving both of our asses right now.” 

FP sighs, getting in the car, shutting the door harder than necessary. Getting in with a quiet growl of irritation, Jughead starts the car, staring at his father until he begrudgingly puts on his seat belt. 

“You’re treating me like a child, Jug,” FP snaps at him, crossing his arms in the passenger seat. 

“You’re acting like one,” Jughead bites out, throwing the car into gear before pulling out of the Sheriff’s station. “Admitting to a murder you didn’t commit, fighting Betty every step of the way as she tried tirelessly to help you, throwing a tantrum over me and the Serpents. Explain to me how that’s not childish.” 

FP scoffs at him. “You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into with the Serpents, Jughead.” 

“Maybe not. But I’m not letting you and your demons ruin the life and family I made for myself.” 

The rest of the ride to the Andrews house is silent, something Jughead is thankful for as he tries to keep his patience in check. Betty’s exhaustion had been palpable over the last twenty-four hours, trying to coordinate FP’s release along with trying to mitigate long term repercussions of lying to Sheriff Keller. When Jughead had told her to let the consequences happen, she’d given him a patient smile and just kept working. 

He shakes his head in fond amusement, thinking about her in their bed wearing a too big t-shirt she’d stolen from him with a messy bun on top of her head, drowning in paperwork and with her laptop in front of her. He wants her like that in their bed in their apartment, in the city they made their home. Not in Riverdale, again. 

They’d escaped. 

Every move they made together, every choice they’d made since they were sixteen was to make the life they’d made. Archie was content in his life in Riverdale, happy to be more like Fred than he would have ever admitted at seventeen but he and Betty had needed more. 

They didn’t know what it was until they found it but they had always known it was just more than they were going to get in Riverdale. He thinks had he grown up like Archie he might be satisfied in Riverdale but with him and Betty having the families they had, they needed to cut ties with the weights around their necks. 

For him, it was the ever looming presence of his dad’s failures and addictions. His missing mom who took his baby sister away from him. For Betty it was the expectations of a family so imperfect they were suffocating their youngest with the ideal of perfectionism. 

The scars on her palms and on his heart had faded but never truly disappeared even as they succeeded in their goals. And Riverdale had opened them back up. 

He wouldn’t let it destroy them. 

Pulling into the Andrews’ driveway, he exhales loudly, turning the ignition off before looking over at his dad. 

“This is the best thing for you,” he says quietly. “I don’t know what you’re doing with the Southside or why you’re trying so hard to take the fall for someone, but-” 

“Jughead, listen to me,” his dad implores, turning to him with tired eyes, “you’re messing with stuff far beyond your control. This isn’t like when you were in high school playing detective with your girlfriend or college when you were taking pictures of cheating spouses-” 

“If you don’t think I would leave today if I could, you are mistaken,” Jughead interrupts. “I don’t want this. The guilt that Betty would have to live with-” he stops, raking a hand through his hair, forgetting for a moment that he’d started wearing his old beanie again, “-the guilt we would both have to live with if -when- you did something stupid and ended up dead for whatever dumb reason -it’s just not something we’re willing to live with.” 

“Jughead, please, go back to your life, to your job, and let me handle this-” 

Jughead laughs, sharp and disbelieving. “Why? What are you hiding?” 

“Nothing.” FP’s face is hard and he stays silent, refusing to meet Jughead’s eyes. 

“Then you’ll have no problem staying with Fred and Archie, will you?” 

FP sighs loudly, getting out of the car and slamming the door, making Jughead flinch before following him, grabbing the bag Betty had packed for him earlier that day. 

By the time he catches up to his dad, FP is getting a warm welcome from Fred and Archie, making Jughead bite back a sigh, knowing he would definitely end up being the bad guy in the whole situation. 

Making his way up to them, he puts on his best imitation of a Cooper smile, Archie almost laughing at the pained fakeness of it as Jughead claps his dad on the back before walking through the door and setting the bag down. 

“Betty packed everything she thought you might need or want,” Jughead says, gesturing to the bag. “If you need anything else, let me know.” 

“I’m sure Betty was more than thorough,” FP states, an edge of sarcasm to his tone. “But if I need anything, I’ll be sure to tell you.” 

Giving him a dark look, Jughead smiles tightly. “If you want, I can always send you a bill for Betty’s legal services if you feel she’s gotten too familiar with you.” 

FP raises his eyebrows at him.

“I know you’re mad, Dad,” Jughead starts, shoulders pulled back as he crosses his arms, “but you do not get to take this out on Betty. She’s got enough going on without you blaming her for the shit you did.” 

Shamefaced, FP gives Jughead a curt nod before walking to the kitchen, following Fred. 

Archie, looking concerned, puts a hand on Jughead’s shoulder to get his attention. “Is Betty alright?” 

Nodding, Jughead lets his arms drop, running a hand over his face. “Yeah, she’s not feeling great this week, too much stress, but she’ll be okay.” 

“She at the trailer?” 

Shaking his head, Jughead huffs in amusement. “Nope. Veronica kidnapped her earlier this morning. Something about girl time and men being useless to her unless she needed a heavy bag lifted.” 

Laughing, Archie pats him on the back before walking over to the sofa to sit. “Sounds like Ronnie.” 

“You okay with her back in town?” 

“Not really, no, but what can I do?” 

Jughead gives him a disbelieving look. “Tell her you still love her? That you know she’s stubborn as hell but you’re tired of living without her?” 

“You make it sound so easy. I don’t remember you telling Betty right away-” 

“I’d like to think there’s a difference between me as a teenager being in love with a girl who I wasn’t sure would love me back and you as an adult in love with a woman who is more than happy to tell you exactly how she feels even you don’t ask for it,” Jughead interrupts, sitting next to him. 

Archie sighs, letting his head fall back against the cushion. “Ronnie has always been more than happy to tell Betty -and you- how much she loves her. That’s what you see, man. When it comes to dating? She’s like a stone sometimes.” 

“What?” 

“I know, right? She loves Betty and she’ll tell total strangers how much she loves her “bestie” but she’s so scared of being like her parents, Jug.” 

“Pretty hard to be like Hiram, Arch,” Jughead consoles, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. 

A weak laugh escapes Archie as he runs his hands through his hair. “Yeah. Where’d she take Betty anyway?” 

“Some spa? I’m not sure which one, she was pushing me out of the door while I was trying to say goodbye to Betty.” 

“Does Alice know you guys are back in town?” 

“Nope,” Jughead says, voice clipped. “After they sold the house and moved, Betty hardly hears from them anymore.” 

“Still mad about-” 

“Yeah,” Jughead cuts in, sighing. “Less mad now, still acting like Alice and Hal Cooper about it, though.” 

“That sucks.” 

“It does,” Jughead agrees. “So, you up for Pop’s? Betty’s not going to be home until after dinner according to Veronica.” 

“Sure,” Archie says. “Let me ask my dad if he wants me to bring them back anything.” 

Standing up after Archie leaves the room, Jughead exhales heavily. He’s exhausted and even with his dad out of jail, he knows it’s not going to get better until he and Betty figure out what’s really going on in Riverdale and why his dad is being so secretive. Checking his phone, he sees he’s got a few hours before he needs to be at the Wyrm to meet the other Serpents. Hoping that Betty will be asleep and in bed by the time he has to leave, he goes to meet Archie by the front door, waving to his dad and Fred as he passes them, giving them the best smile he can  muster. 

“Ready?” Archie asks. 

Jughead opens the door, twirling his keys on his finger. “Lead on, Arch.” 

 

* * *

 

“Are you sure you’re up for this?” Veronica asks, trying to put her hand on her forehead. 

Pushing it off with a laugh, Betty smiles at her best friend of over a decade. “I promise, I’m fine-” 

“We can go to the Pembrooke,” Veronica interrupts, “and have the spa come to us. Or, since it’s Riverdale, we can put on face masks and watch bad TV.” 

“I’m just tired and stressed out,” Betty promises, reaching over to give Veronica’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “I should probably get out of the house anyway, I’ve been cooped up in the trailer for the last couple of days.” 

Veronica pouted at her. “I know. I came here -just for you-” 

“V,” Betty cuts in, giving her a look, “do not pretend you came here just for me.” 

“I did!” Veronica exclaims. “Mostly.” 

“Mmhmm,” Betty hums out. “Sure.” 

Veronica seems suddenly self-conscious next to her in the back of the car. Fidgeting with her hands and avoiding eye contact, Betty’s concern grows as she restlessly crosses her legs and looks out of the window, pushing her hair behind her ear. 

“I’ve been seeing someone,” Veronica finally whispers, reaching blindly for Betty’s hand, intertwining their fingers. “But I don’t know if it’s because I’m interested or because I’m so good at distracting myself.” 

“You’ve been seeing someone?” 

“Yeah. I ran into him about a month ago, I don’t think I’d seen him since college but there he was, right in front of me-” 

“Reggie?” 

“How’d you know?” 

“You said college. If it wasn’t Archie in college, it was Reggie.” 

Veronica sighs, laying her head on Betty’s shoulder. “I never know if I’m doing right by Reggie, B. Do I like him because he’s not Archie or do I just use him to avoid facing Archie because I don’t think Reggie can hurt me?” 

“Both? Neither?” Betty questions, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and resting her cheek on top of Veronica’s hair. “If you love Reggie, then great. If you’re using Reggie to avoid going after what you really want, then you know what I’ll say to that. And if you just want to have a good time with Reggie, that’s okay too. But-” 

“But what?” 

“We both know if you were head over heels in love with Reggie, you wouldn’t be in Riverdale, living here like I need a chaperone with my own husband. You’re looking for reasons to run, aren’t you?” 

“Jughead barely knows how to take care of himself, how can I trust him with you?” 

Smiling into her friend’s hair, Betty rolls her eyes fondly. “Jughead knows how to take care of me.” 

“Maybe,” Veronica grumbles, leaning further into Betty. “Still, I did walk in on him eating a peanut butter and froot loop sandwich recently, so I’m staying suspicious.” 

Betty laughs. “You know how he feels about food.” 

Veronica sniffs in disdain. “Yes, I do. And it’s gross. Proof that the only good taste he’s ever had was begging you to date him-” 

“He didn’t beg,” Betty cuts in, laughing. 

“Close enough,” Veronica states with a huff. 

Sighing, Betty tightens her arm around Veronica. “You’ll figure it out, V, I promise.” 

“Maybe I should have just gone to the same college as Archie, it might have worked out better that way.”

“Or, it would have happened the same way it did.” 

“Or, I could have married Archie and there could be a little redheaded baby running around wielding a guitar-” 

“You do know you just made your hypothetical baby with Archie sound like a musically inclined Chuckie doll, right?” 

Shuddering, Veronica makes a face. “Gross.” 

“What’s really going on?” 

“I’m worried I’m missing out. I have a good job and a comfortable life and I’m just -I just think-” 

“You don’t need to be married to be happy-” 

“I know,” Veronica interrupts, sitting up and meeting Betty’s eyes. “Do you regret it? Getting married so young?” 

Smiling, Betty thinks about their impromptu wedding and the two-day honeymoon they’d had over a long weekend in their apartment. “No. But because it was right for me and Jug doesn’t mean it would have been right for you, you know.” 

“This is all your fault, you know, with you meeting your soulmate at five and then marrying him in college. Disgusting, really.” 

“I’m sorry for the inconvenience that must have caused you.” 

“Apology _ not _ accepted.” 

 

* * *

 

Jughead quietly slips into the trailer in the hopes Betty is asleep and not still out with Veronica. The last few weeks have been more than stressful for the both of them but he’s been worrying about her more than usual seeing how much she’s pushing herself, for both him and his dad. Kicking off his shoes and dropping his jacket on the counter along with his hat, he makes his way down the short hallway to the bedroom, stopping in the doorway to check if Betty is in their bed. 

He smiles and feels relief when he sees the messy blonde bun sticking out of the top of the blankets and pads over to the bed, crawling in behind her and pulling her back into his chest. 

“Jug?” Betty questions sleepily, her eyes still closed even as she turns her head to look at him. 

“Expecting someone else?” he jokes, kissing the back of her neck before tightening his arms around her. 

“Veronica was here earlier.” 

“And does she often spoon you in our bed?” 

“Only when I ask nicely.” 

Jughead huffs a laugh into her hair. “Did you have a good day?”

“I did. We got massages and facials. Apparently I’m glowing now, can you tell?” 

“So bright I don’t think we need light bulbs anymore.” 

Laughing, Betty shakes her head in amusement. “How was your day?” 

“Dropped my dad off, had dinner with Archie, the usual.” 

“He didn’t take it well, I assume?” 

Jughead exhales loudly. “That would be a good assumption. He’ll be fine, he just needs to stop trying to get himself into trouble.” 

He feels Betty’s hand cover his, squeezing it before intertwining their fingers together. 

“I’ve been thinking,” Betty starts, hesitating before continuing, “that maybe you need to think about what would cause your dad to lie to you-” 

“You mean aside from everything?” 

“-or  _ who _ could cause him to keep up a lie like that. We know he’s trying to protect you-” 

“Do we?” 

“Jug, he was at your book signing, he’s proud of you-”

“Then where was he, Betty? When I was younger? He just gave me away-” 

“He did what was best for you, Jug, and you know it.” 

Blinking angry tears away, Jughead buries his face in Betty’s hair, inhaling the sweet scent of her shampoo to try and center himself. 

“I know that, I do. It still feels like he quit though. I don’t regret living with Fred and Archie, I think it kept me from making some really stupid choices and I love Fred like he’s my own dad but I can’t help thinking if he had tried harder, or loved me more, or just gave a damn we wouldn’t be in this situation now.” 

Betty turns over, a difficult maneuver when he’s refusing to release his grip on her, putting her hands on his face to make him look at her. “You need to be objective or you need to let it go, okay? I know our parents aren’t great but we’re not them and we’re not going to be biased or we’re never going to figure it out.” 

Nodding, Jughead sniffs, resting his forehead on hers. “We’re not our parents.” 

“FP has three weaknesses, Jug. Start there.” 

Despite his current feelings, he knows he’s one of his dad’s weak spots. 

“Me, Jellybean, and-” he stops, confused on the third one. Gazing at Betty in the dim light of the room, he bites his lip as she raises an eyebrow at him. “-no. You don’t think so, do you?” 

“Can’t hurt to ask, can it?”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YOU GUYS, I OWE MARIA SO MUCH. This chapter was MESSY before she got to it. I love to drop commas and words and sometimes I have no idea what I've just written. It's cool though because I have a Maria. 
> 
> You should all get one. But not the one I have, I'm not into sharing, thanks. 
> 
> Did you know that the mayor at a school thing seems to be more common than we thought? The mister was watching something and I legit almost snarkily said something about the mayor being at a high school but caught myself. 
> 
> Am I a hypocrite? Obviously. Does he need to know that? No. Not today, anyway. He's still trying to explain to the neighbors I meant the bass in music when I said (out loud and in our driveway) that if it doesn't vibrate my ass, I don't want it. 
> 
> He's so lucky he married me, I know. 
> 
> Anyway! I know this chapter took forever and I'm thankful for the patience while I wrote other fics and one shots during this one's hiatus. You deserve all the besos. ALL OF THEM. I said that with affectionate menace, just so you know. 
> 
> As always, you can come [tumble](https://thetaoofbetty.tumblr.com/) with me if you want.


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